Fussy eating would you see the doctor?

[username38483]

DS is my second child and my first went through a very fussy stage. So I know all the advice. It has just got to a ridiculous stage now and I am very worried.
He ate fine until he was about 15/16 months. Then he started going off his usual favourites. I was very relaxed about it and just kept offering/not showing any signs of it bother me/let him eat it or not. It has gotten worse and worse. He has now just turned 2. He has not eaten any form of meat or high iron protein veg like beans for at least 3 months. He barely eats anything.

Today in total he has had a quarter piece of toast and a banana for breakfast, licked the cheese off his sandwich for lunch, refused any form of snacks until I offered him a packet of Pom Pom crisps which he ate, he has now had a couple of mini potato waffles for tea (refused the beans).

He used to eat roast dinners, Shepard's pie, lasagna, spaghetti bolo, tomato pasta, jerk chicken. I still make these meals but he literally won't put them in his mouth to even try. He has a multi vitamin as I am really worried he must be lacking them. To me he looks pale. The HV always tells me it's normal and they grow out of it.

A friend of mine recently said just let him have chicken nuggets etc. I think she thought I was only trying him with only healthy foods. I would actually be delighted if he did eat a chicken nugget right now!

Has anyone been through similar? Did you speak to someone above a HV about it? I am considering the doctor now.

Incredibly difficult and certainly not unreasonable to speak to your GP but unless they have a special interest in child nutrition it’s unlikely they’ll have any better solutions than. Your HV.

Does he drink milk, eat yoghurt, ice cream or anything?

If he’s losing weight, not growing or listless you could ask for a referral to a paediatrician and further investigation.

It must be really stressful :( What things will he eat?

Have you looked up ARFID? It might be worth looking into and discussing with your GP who should be able to refer you to a dietitian who will be able to support you best.

Is he having a lot of milk? I lot of children this age still get a lot of calories from milk or breastfeeding and that is fine.

We had similar when our son stopped eating completely. We were referred to the paediatrician, dietician and specialist feeding team. At one point he restarted eating but only 5 'safe' foods.It has been a long, challenging road but he's now 7 and has a slightly longer safe food list now (although god forbid if we buy a different brand of his safe foods!)

Thank you everyone I will book an appointment with the doctor. He does drink milk and has breast milk still just one feed a day before he goes to bed. I feel he has to have this feed otherwise he would go to bed hungry.

The list of foods he will eat is just getting shorter and shorter. Even then it's not always a guaranteed he will eat them. He sometimes eats toast, cheese sandwiches/cheese crackers, pitta bread, pizza, chips/potato waffles, tinned carrots, apples, strawberries and bananas. So basically bread, chips, cheese and fruit.

I will look into AFRID I have heard about it.

DS(6) started becoming fussy at 14 months and is still fussy now. He has not eaten a vegetable since he was 2, and even now will very rarely eat fruit. He pretty much turns his nose up at most cooked meals, and just won’t try most things. It’s so frustrating.

He was under a NHS dietician for 18 moths from age 4, however the attitude is that unless DC are losing weight, already underweight, or are having medical problems due to diet then there isn’t much they can do. You can’t force feed a healthy child (obviously excludes those with serious feeding issues) and it’s usually a control thing.

The advice was to keep offering a range of foods, always include 1 food on their plate that they will definitely eat, ensure they are not filling up on milk before meals otherwise they will not have an appetite, offer new foods outside of mealtimes to reduce the pressure to try them, don’t remove an uneaten meal and then serve up something else I.e. toast/cereal, small glass of milk at bedtime to line the stomach.