18 months old doesn't eat.

[WiltshireMummy2013]

My 18 months old son doesn't want to eat anything with a spoon.

He only eats biscuits, crisps (no salt added) and his milk.

This not eating has been going on for a while but the last week it's been really bad.

Yes I have tried to feed him everything.

He has always been a very skinny and active baby.
I'm afraid he will be fading away soon.

He started running around at 10 months so he is burning a lot of calories... which I'm worried he doesn't have.

What do you mean he doesn't want to eat anything with a spoon? What about other foods that don't need a spoon? Sandwiches, oatcakes, rice cakes, toast?

NOTHING with a spoon. Absolutely nothing.

At the moment he only likes crispy things like biscuits and crisps.

My DS wouldn't eat anything with a spoon either, but that was from the start of weaning so he only ever had finger foods (it is possible, but very messy to eat Weetabix with your fingers).

If he likes crispy things then I'd definitely give rice cakes or oatcakes a go. You could try spreading them with Philadelphia or peanut butter. If he just wants to eat with his fingers then cutting omelette into strips means it can be picked up pretty efficiently.

But omelette is not crispy... see my problem.

I was wondering if there was any drinks with more calories than his usual baby milk?

He currently drinks Cow and Gate growing up milk aged 1-2 years.

I would change his milk to half milk half water and hopefully he will become more hungry, sometimes cows milk can be a meal in itself.

Just read you are on the powdered milk sorry x

If I were allowed to live on crisps, biscuits and milk, I think I would, you know.

I don't mean to sound u sympathetic, but he really needs a more varied diet. More milk is not the answer at his age. More food is the answer.

Does he get lots of attention when he refuses a meal? Do you fall back on biscuits when he's turned his nose up at sandwiches?

Ah, I thought you were looking for non-spoon stuff, not crispy stuff.

You can make crisps out of various vegetables? Breadsticks (would he dip them in anything?). If he branches out into crunchy, then carrot sticks might work.
I'd try water biscuits or cream crackers, then sneak toppings on them.

My DS was similar, still is to an extent. He wouldn't eat anything runny, mushy or mixed up. Yogurt, scrambled eggs, mashed potato were all out. He didn't eat anything from a spoon but didn't want finger food either unless, as you say, it was crispy.

We gave high calorie milk for a while but since he came off it I realize this was a mistake - it just dulled his appetite and made eating worse.

My suggestion is to try hard to come up with foods that you can make crispy. What about chicken bites in breadcrumbs? Toast cut into squares? Fish fingers?

Whilst DS still hates spoons it turned out that he liked forks so we had success with cutting things bite sized so he could stab them. He even learned to eat some "wet" things that way eg avocado.

As I said, I'd be careful increasing milk calories as, if he is not motivated by food, he may not want to eat when he's getting calories from milk.

We have the same problem with DS (21 mo). Everything has to be crispy. Today I bought some japanese rice crackers with seaweed - he loved them (due to the texture). Seaweed has a lot of iron & other nutrients, so it's a good option.
Have you tried cheese? A stick of cheese (or sometimes a cheese sandwich cut into strips) is one of the few non-crispy things DS will tolerate. Maybe because it's made of milk...
Anyway, I wonder if this is a phase relating to teething - incisors perhaps? Surely this will pass?

(sorry, meant to say canine teeth, not incisors!)

noblegiraffe is right, there are a lot of "normal" meals that are finger-friendly.

My 17 month old loves THIS type of food and you can sneak in pretty much anything in it.