16mo fussy eating after illness - how to handle?

[diyqueen]

Dd (16mo) had a bad cold & cough recently which got better a few days ago - no symptoms any more. She ate next to nothing (except milk) for a week while poorly and her eating's still not great. Took her to be weighed as she was looking v skinny to me and she's lost a lot of weight - hv said not to stress about mealtimes, but to feed her whatever she'll eat little and often to get her appetite back.

This is all very well but she is still subsisting on rich tea biscuits, fruit, rice cakes and weetabix, mostly eaten while on my knee/being read to etc. She will eat some breakfast, but lunch and dinner will just get pushed away, and she's started sometimes tantrumming when we try to put her in the highchair at mealtimes, meaning she gets in a complete state and nothing gets eaten then. How long will it take for her to get her appetite back and get into a proper pattern of eating again?

this is is very very normal for this age group - even when they havn't been ill - they get fussier and their appitite drop.
I would say about a week or so she might be eat a bit more - do you eat at the same time as her some of the time - sometimes food from mummy's plate can be nicer

That's reassuring, thanks. Yes, we always eat together for every meal, for some reason eating anywhere except the table is appealing most at the moment! Having a better day today though, an earlier lunch worked as she was less tired and a bit of sandwich actually got eaten.

What do other people do about highchair tantrums? We're just kind of leaving her on the floor, ignoring her and carrying on with our meal until she calms down. But then she misses her dinner and has a snack later which isn't a habit I want to get into.

I wouldn't make a bit deal of it all - if she resisit the high chair at all - I would just leave it - ignore any tantrum - leave her food on it -sometimes they ask for it a bit later. if she is hungry later you can always give her the dinner later?

Aw, if she is actually losing weight I'd try to encourage her to eat by making rice puddings, baked (Soft) puddings like fruit calfoutis and custards. Ours often will only eat prrodge, yogurt and other sloppy easy to swallow foods when ill - especially if she has a sore throat.

BTW ours did the same about going in the high chair at around that age but had almost grown out of it anyway so we got a booster seat thing for a tenner instead, and she sits on a chair next to us and loves it. Kiddicare have them.

So glad I saw this post.
My 14 month old dd is doing the same, she's had an insatiable appetite since birth often polishing off hers and then asking for whats on other peoples plates but the last week or so have been a nightmare. Every meal has been a struggle - do you just let them eat what they want!? In this case fruit just to get nutrients into them?

Biggem in my opinion if they have been ill yes give them wgat they will eat but otherwise no. Its normal for them to have hungry periods and less hungry ones. They wont starve by eating a bit less for a couple of weeks.

Thanks, dd has been eating much better today, and no tantrums either. Good idea about the booster seat, might try that again sometime (last time we used it she launched herself out of it sideways, but that was a month ago). Biggem, it is so frustrating isn't it... fruit at least is pretty healthy.