Had enough of dd fussy ways

[Cupcakemummy85]

Basically that! My dd (18 months) has made me litreally sick with worry. She wasn't eating or drinking, didnt seem to b ill. I got myself into such a state yesterday I made myself ill and 36 weeks pregnant. She is drinking today thank god but isn't eating anything and I am not going to give her an alternative. It's time for the battle of the wills!! Children get away with so much these days and I think my daughter does because I tried to do the nicely nicely approach. Going to stay calm today. Someone hold my hand please lol

She is just testing you,

If you always provide an alternative when she turns up her nose at something,of course she will refuse things, because the reward is something new.

so good luck.

Cupcake have you read My Child Won't Eat by Carlos Gonzalez?

I have read reviews and I'm not 100% on it. I was looking back at videos and photos if my little one and she was such an amazing eater. She would try anything and love it. Now it's like she takes few bites (if I'm lucky) and won't go for anymore. My dh fed her infront of the tv last night to get her to eat and it worked but I'm not sure that's a path I want to go down. I'm not sure how to approach this anymore I've tried pretty much everything.

If you turn it into a battle of wills she will win, hands down.

I agree don't feed her in front of the tv. Just sit down with her for 3 meals a day and a couple of healthy snacks as she is so young, and don't comment on what she does or does not eat. Sit for a sensible amount of time and then take away what is left. Don;t FGS work yourself up into a state about it.

With eating as with pretty much everything to do with children, past performance is not necessarily an indication of what they will do in the future. A brilliant sleeper/eater etc can turn overnight into a wakeful child/fussy eater (and back again). She just may not need as much food for now - perhaps she is not growing as fast.

This happened to me and I cut all snacks, pudding/yogurt, extra millk and talking about it all. I kept busy, but in the house so she wasn't getting a biscuit at playgroup and I had her eating chickpeas out of the palm of my hand within hours.

My DS did the same thing -- it's probably just temporary, no need to panic! It's a phase they go through sometimes.

DS saw a pediatrician for other reasons when this was happening and she said not to worry, they can go a long time without eating and it's no problem (though you do want to make sure they are drinking). She said basically they will eat when they're hungry. Definitely a good idea to cut out snacks and just focus on meals.

I think it's a control thing, they want to be more independent but they are still so dependent on us. Eating is one of the very few things they CAN control so it becomes a big thing.

Just keep offering her food, if she doesn't eat, then yes, tell her that's not good, but don't make a big issue of it, just try feeding her again at the next meal time. It's hard but it really worked for us.

My ds changed from a really good eater who would eat anything I gave him to a really fussy eater who would eat very few things. You are doing the right thing by not accepting this behavior because my ds is now 4 and I still struggle. I spoke to my Health Visitor about this last week and she said his diet seemed fine and I should not worry about it. Maybe we expect too much from our children when it comes to eating but it certainly makes life easier if they will eat the same food as the rest of the family. My ds seems to have a problem with certain textures but is also just very stubborn and refuses to eat a lot of things. I think what SavoyCabbage did is a good thing to try because I do find sometimes my ds more likely to eat something if he is really hungry. Good luck! I hope you win the battle of wills.

Hi all, its a long time since my youngest was 18 mths but she is a serial fussy eater.

I just wanted to remind you that a child stomach is the same size as thier fist.

It is very unlikely that a child would starve themselves, my Dd3 recently went 14 days on tiny nibbles of food when she was unwell.

Try keeping a food diary over a week instead of a day, it will give you a much clearer idea of the variety of foods actually being eaten.

Most of all hold your nerve, this is a stage and for the majority of children will just come and go and not become a massive problem.

Good luck

I think limiting her snacks definitely helps. I did noodles and stir fry and the fact she had the noodles was a huge achievement. We've had issues with her not drinking so I have to make sure she has plenty of drinks she likes, ie juice and Ice lollies. After dinner she had strawberries and two Ice lollies (one he stole off me lol). She doesn't eat much at dinner but I do offer fruit and snacks after when she has at least tried her dinner. I'm not sure if that is ok but I am trying anything to not only get food in her but also fluids. She is on movicol and milk is the only way she will have it so I can't really reduce that eIther.