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21 month old refusing to eat & started waking thru night for bottle - help!

1 reply

MrsC09 · 12/03/2012 20:03

my 21 month old used to eat everything & although an early riser has pretty much been sleeping through the night since he was around 6 months. The past 5 weeks all that has changed and he's refusing foods. Some days are better than others but some days he will literally survive on one cracker. I keep reading about not forcing toddlers to eat & they are capable of knowing how much food the need bu I don't think my ds falls into this category as he's started waking up through the night starving hungry because he hasnt eaten all day. Some nights he'll have 3 bottles which is more than when he was a newborn! He's also lost weight & hasn't grown at all the past 2 months (although not sur if this tends to happen in spurts rather consistently?) He's always been very skinny (9-25th percentile) so his weight loss really concerns me.

Initially I thought it was down to teething as his fangs are coming through, but surely 5 weeks seems to be a bit of a stretch?

I've tried everything to get him to eat (eating at big table, eating at little table, leaving him to it, giving him lots of praise, feeding him in buggy, in front of tv, soft foods, finger foods...etc ) but nothing seems to work on the days he's off food.

I'm 6 months pregnant and terrified that I wont get him back to sleeping thru before the baby arrives! The sleep deprivation is bad enough as it is without adding a newborn to the mix!

Please tell me someone has a magical cure?!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Irisim · 12/03/2012 22:12

This really does sound hard. You are doing the right thing about not making a fuss about him not eating.
Does he go to nursery? Do they make the food?
Just a few ideas you could try:
Have him eat with a friend (preferably in the friend's house) - Many children tend to eat better when they have other children as a role model.
While not making a fuss prepare a sticker chart for the entire family
Try getting him involved in preparing the food (even baking biscuits)

Good luck

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