The toddler that won’t eat.

[Crystalisedpeanuts]

Someone stop me pulling my hair out.
Gp couldn’t give a hoot, can’t get past the triage nurse who is determined the fairies will make him eat one day.

Ds 2yo has been a fussy eater for ages, we were down to less than 10 “safe” foods for a while, and none of them are particularly healthy but no one bothered as he was putting away a fair volume.

Recently he had a d&v bug, forced fluid challenges (for several hours) and since leaving hospital he’s down to 1 (very occasionally 2) foods. Specific flavour of crisp and specific cereal. And will only eat a tiny amount of both. He’s tired, he can’t sleep all night because he wakes up starving but will not eat anything else. He won’t take his milk any more either, pretty sure it’s due to nurses forcing it on him when he felt crap tbh.

Apparently he’ll magically eat normally sometime.. I don’t believe it. What the hell do you do? He has obviously lost weight/dropped centiles with the bug but hasn’t been weighed for over year with covid restrictions.

He’s pretty much non verbal, so I can’t ask him if he wants x or y as he literally won’t answer or point or give any indication besides screaming and throwing himself about.. which neither answers the question or hints at what it is. Won’t eat wet things, won’t use cutlery, won’t eat if there’s something visible he doesn’t like.. follow my drift.

Other son is a human wheelie bin 😂 so I can’t say it’s my cooking or what’s offered.

[BunnyRuddington]

You have my total sympathy, DD was extremely fussy, but not on this level.

Is he still losing weight? If you can't get past the triage nurse at the GP you could try insisting that he is seen in person and weighed, but you still might not get through to the GP. The alternative might be to call 111 tomorrow and explain about the weight loss.

It certainly sounds like he does need seeing, he could possibly need help for a feeding aversion. As ASD can cause this kind of limited diet it might be worth doing the mchat test before you speak to any HCP. If his risk is high or if he's still losing weight, the GP should definitely see him and refer.

[Crystalisedpeanuts]

They won’t weigh him either, only the hv who wants to wait until he’s had his “30month review” before referring for any asd screening, mchats been high risk scoring but again fobbed as normal toddler behaviour.. I swear brick walls work in my gps. And she’s not doing any non essential home visits, but she’ll call back on Monday and I’ll poke her to weigh him again.

I’ve left a message on the dietitians number, she’s aware of his fussy self thankfully he’s under them due to allergies so I had some contact there.

We know there’s something more to him but alas stuck in the “he’s just little” or blaming it on lockdown cycle and it’s driving me round the bend.

[BunnyRuddington]

I bet it is driving you around the bend. My pre-lockdown advice would have been to book an appointment at the GP and take DH with you, if you have one as sadly the GPs tend to listen if Dad is there, it worked fir us when DS had repeated tonsillitis.

No your GP has a triage system, could DH call and insist on an appointment? They really are more likely to listen to a man.

Other than that, you can self refer for a hearing test and speech therapy in most areas. You might already have been referred to a Paediatrian for assessment by the time you get to see a SLT, but if not, they can refer you.

It might also be worth asking about food aversion and ASD assessment in the SN section, you might find some experienced MNers in there

[EscapeDragon]

Get someone to film several typical mealtimes, with him screaming and struggling to get away and refusing to eat anything. Sometimes HCPs need to see for themselves what the issue is.

[BunnyRuddington]

Good suggestion about filming him. My only other suggestion would be to give him some paracetamol about half an hour before you offer breakfast, if you can get him to take it at all. There's a chance that he could be refusing because he's feeling unwell.