Feeding issues

[lecohen]

Hi all, I am quite new here and just trying to figure my way around this forum.

Sorry if this has been discussed before but my dd who has just turned 1 is an absolute pain when it comes to mealtimes, she is just not interested in food AT ALL!

She doesn't mind finger foods but gets bored VERY quickly of it and feeding her from a spoon is a challenge to say the least.

She is not interested in a bottle anymore and NEVER finishes a whole bottle of milk.

She acts like she is too busy to eat and that it's a waste of her valuable playing and exploring time.

She is on the 25th centile on the weight charts and has still not reached 9kg...she is slight build but seems healthy and content. She weighted 2.9kg at birth.

I have spoken to my health visitor who says not to worry and that it's very common but I just want to hear if anyone here has similar experiences.

Many thanks,

Leena
A concerned mum xxx

Woops, I meant *weighed

No one wants to talk to me lol

My younger daughter goes in phases. Sometimes she eats loads and other times very little.

I rarely worry about her as long as she appears happy and healthy. She's 14 months and doesn't like anyone helping her to eat so it's either finger foods or something she can stab with a fork rather than something that requires a spoon.

Will your daughter eat yoghurt? have you tried the tube yoghurts because they're less messy than a normal one.

I do tend to leave a little running buffet out all day for my daughter and only clear it away at about 2pm so she'll eat some dinner later.

If feeding her from a spoon is a challenge, then don't do it. Just put her food in front of her, with a spoon and fork of her own so that she can get used to them, and let her get on with it (mostly with her own hands - you really can eat just about anything that way). If she is hungry, she will eat.

Are you eating with her, and the same things as her too? My dd would only eat at that age if I did, and I still do it now.

Welcome to MN .

i agree. i have to eat at the same time as ds else he won't eat. i give him a little fork for him to play with and leave him to eat it by himself. he never actually uses the fork but its there for him to get used to.

how much milk is she having? maybe it is filling her up too much? anything between 12 and 24 oz is fine so maybe you should cut down?

Hiya,

Thanks for your responses...

It does help when I eat with her but not always. She is happy to be fed yogurt and fruit from a spoon but even then it's a bit of a struggle.

I also buy the ones in the tube but she just wants to squeeze it rather than eat it.

She wants to be independent but doesn't actually try to feed herself if I give her a spoon/fork, she just wants to fling whatever it is I am offering her on to the floor and mash it on her tray.

I always try to be creative with finger foods and try to make her things that I know she likes but she just eats a little.

Also, if I make her food lumpy and feed it to her on a spoon, she chokes on it but if I offer her biscuits and dried fruit then she will happily chomp on it.

As for milk, she only takes it really in the morning as she doesn't care for it at all. The only thing she wants to drink is water and if I have 2 identical beakers, one with milk, one with water she will always scream when she gets the milk in favour of the water.

The health visitor at the baby clinic told me that my dd is just not food driven at all but she will not starve herself. I know that this is true becaiuse if I really let her get a bit hungry, she is more co-operative.

I hope that in time she will get better and maybe my next child will be a better eater lol

i would maybe stop giving her the spoon and fork if that just makes her play with it more. sometimes when ds won't eat i go out of the room for 15 minutes and when i come back he's happily chomping away. have you tried that?

Hi lecohen. My dd has never really been interested in eating. Even when she was 4 months old she would only take 3oz bottles every 3-4 hours. When weaned she started off ok but she got to 18 months and screamed when we mentioned dinner. She stopped eating dinner completely for at least 6 months but was still very healthy and happy (hasn't been ill for over a year apart from colds). She's 2.5 yrs now and a lot smaller than most other kids her age and weighs 27lbs. She's got such a small waist that she can fit into 9-12 month skirts. In the course of a day she might have a handful of shreddies, half a slice of toast and a sausage. I have to keep asking her throughout the day if she wants any food but I try not to make a big deal of it. If she doesn't want any dinner then I just say and don't make a fuss. I'd rather she was like this than like her cousin who doesn't stop asking for food all day. My sister and bil are constantly worried about her getting fat.

My hv suggested vitamin supplements. I'm not giving them to dd but if you're worried you might want to try them.

Thank you very much GillL for sharing your experience. I took dd to nurse for vax today and she also reassured me that there is nothing to worry about. She also suggested I cut out snacks between meals and she said that I should stop giving weetabix as it contains too may fillers and is not actually that good for babies.

I guess it just really gets to me when my family comment that I am not feeding her enough (like I am withholding food from her) when really it is her that rejects it.

I will ask my hv about vitamin supplements.

Thanks again xxx