just turned two years never eaten solids

[DianaDors]

I give up, ds refuses point blank to eat solids and every day for the last year I have binned the apple slices, corn, cucumber, melon, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, banana, chicken nuggets, toast that I have cut attractively, served, to no avail. I have put one item on his plate, all on his plate, a few on his plate etc. Tonight when he screamed at me, I screamed back. He is now in front of the tv while I have a gin&tonic and type this. He is our 2nd boy of 2children. We are doing the same stuff we did before. With the exception that he is still taking milk from a bottle.

I give him milk from a bottle 3x a day, he will not drink juice or water or diluted juice from the £20 worth of beakers that we have bought over the last 18mths. He chews them. He has milk upon waking, porridge 2hours later, milk after a nap and after his bath. The rest of the time he will ONLY eat pureed food including all meat, fish, fruit & veg. Mostly home-made and everything from home-made curry to shepherds pie. Pureed only. Slightest lump and he vomits. He is always given lumpy food, he never chews he swallows as soon as the lump is discovered he either stops eating or vomits every meal. He will eat any amount of bland or spiced food provided it is pureed.

There is nothing physically wrong with him whatsoever. If the food is sauce based like spag bol he will open his mouth willingly, but heaven forbid that there is a rogue piece of texture.

He barely speaks other than, ta da, ta & bye.

He never says mummy or daddy and probably won't until he eats something solid as so far his tongue is just there for decoration. My compost bin is full of wonderful food, thrown in disgust on the floor, spat at me or simply ignored. He is give loads of praise every time he even looks vaguely interested in food, he has forks & we encourage touching his food (regardless of the living hell the kitchen has become). We eat with him and only at the table with no distractions. He has never eaten snacks or treat food. He did eat cheerios every morning for a week with milk and for reasons best known only to himself he stopped after 5 days.

He tips all cereal onto the floor and he has been given every type just to tempt him. He refuses all dehydrated fruit whether in bits or whole.

I'm fed up. He's not, clearly.

We entertain, distract, praise, ignore, whatever it does not work and I am nothing if not consistent in my approach especially as I want my 6year old to know that I am fair with them both.

He is a healthy weight, he is active and fit.

He sleeps like a dream, from 6.30pm every night until he's woken, that's right, WOKEN the following morning at 6.30am. He has a minimum 3hour nap every day and always has done. He has a sunny disposition and the dirtiest laugh. He is easy and an ideal little boy, an absolute dream and his older brother was the same. So why doesn't he eat solids or speak?

He's now being referred for speech therapy. It will come as no surprise that eating solids and speech are directly linked.

I know I'm lucky having two such good sleepers and lovely happy children. But if I have to push another carrot through a sieve I will scream.

He will eat beige food such as bread sticks and crackers and toast crusts (he will not eat toast or crust with butter or any jam/honey etc on it. His favourite chew thing is a week old baguette.

All our furniture and books have bite marks in them, including the rest of the family. He will eat stones and cardboard and I am forever tipping him upside down and hauling things out so he doesn't crack his jaw in half, poison himself or choke.

Cutting out the milk only results in him not drinking at all. Then he starts to get dehydrated and has become constipated on only those occasions we have denied him access to it.

It would be great to hear from some one with a two year old who has had success.

[DianaDors]

Ds2 is much better now & with the cough completely gone. He's no longer gagging & vomiting over solid food and is actually starting to eat more 'normal' food such as a slice of roast pork, slice of roast lamb, and cubed swede! He is still eating mush as well but doing well with a spoon of this & a cube of that. I think the prolonged cough really did take its toll on him & us and am so pleased that he's enjoying eating & keeping it down. He's no longer refusing all food at first sight but starting to touch it & lick it - even if it gets tossed aside after! Its been such an eye-opener having our 2nd child! Language is still babbling and have not had meeting with SALT yet, of course we would love to hear Mummy or Dada, but just having him enjoy and try his food feels like an extraordinary milestone, so will keep going! Many thanks again to all who've posted.

[BeeLister]

Well done! Sounds as though he is making great progress

How have you been doing with ditching the bottle completely and moving on to cups?

Op, have pm'd you

[minimisa]

I have twins who are not as bad as yours but pretty bad on the food front and also didn't say much until very recently and now they are 2 and 3 months they have started really gaining words at a pace (much like I saw my friends children do at about 18 months or so!). Having consulted many sources including Mumsnet I have taken a relaxed approach to food and give them what they want with an occasional new offering and they do seem to be getting a little less phobic (they don't mind lumps but used to scream their heads off if I offered something new). I also really agree with treedelivery - don't wind yourself up cooking lovely organic stuff - offer him something cheap and simple for starters. I'm now delighted if I can get mine to have a potato waffle!