Change in eating behaviour post stomach virus - advice please!!!

[chelseamorning]

Okay, here goes (deep breath!)...

Prior to a stomach virus (this novo/noro thingy) a week ago, my 14 mo DS used to eat pretty much anything I gave him. I know it's only been four days or so since he stopped showing symptoms, but I'm really concered about how little he's eating. Perhaps I'm expecting too much from his little tummy?

Once his symptoms stopped, I tried him on small quantities of foods slowly, such as toasted teacakes (his favourite!), wheatabix-type thing, bananas etc. He seemed to eat these although sometimes only a few bits. A few days on now and he's not really eating much else. The most he'll have in addition to this is a small handful of blueberries on his wheatabix.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

He's refusing to eat anything 'normal', even a simple risotto, yogurt or a rice pudding. However he has eaten smallish quantities of hummous with potato cakes so I'm not sure if the 'bland' issue is coming into it.

There is some weird behaviour though...

We were out today so I took a cooked lunch for him in a thermos (a mixture of red lentils, sweet potato and butternut squash) which he totally refused to eat. Instead, he preferred to eat a third of my toasted panini with mozzarella, tomato and pesto. I was just happy to see him eat something 'normal'!

Also, he has refused to eat any dinner. He wouldn't even try what I've made him. I knew he was hungry as he'll eat toasted teacake/maltloaf half an hour later!!

I'm really not sure what's going on here. I'm wondering if it's a mixture of things:

a) We had just come back from a 4 day stay at the inlaws where he ate different food at different mealtimes. (I wasn't allowed to cook his food and MIL seemed to ignore my firmness about his mealtimes!! Never again!) The day after we returned from the trip, he became ill.

b) His little tummy just needs more time to get back on track.

c) His gums are sore due to teething and so he's just all over the place regarding eating. Eating a toasted paninii today, with its abrasive edges may have helped ease the itching of his gums? May explain why he likes the toasted teacakes too?

Does anyone please have any ideas about what may be going on here, or any suggestions as to how I can get him back on track? The poor little thing really can't afford to lose any more weight!

Luckily I'm still BF him but with his reduced calorie intake during the day, I'm feeding him once during the night and then again around 6am. More sleep urgently required!!

Thanks, ladies!

oh god, this bloody norovirus!
me, ds and dp had it, and we were all off our food for a few days after the end of any symptoms
ds more so - he went back to being mainly breastfed, to the extent that his nappies became inoffensive again!
he's getting food, he's getting liquid, just keep offering his usual scoff, and he'll get back into the swing of it
you're "programmed" to avoid foods you ate just before getting sick, as an evolutionary precaution against poisonous/rotten food
this bug is a right pain!
hope you're all better soon

I know!! It has been sooooo draining. My DH and I have had it too so I've been following our progress and assuming his will mirror it too. Just want to get as many vitamins back into him again asap. Mother's curse, I guess!

Thanks, min.

My DD got rotavirus at 11.5months it took her 6 weeks to get back to how much she was eating before (D&V bug too). She still refuses to eat anything with a cheese sauce 3 months later. She went back to BFing too and it was our saviour. It can take 4-6 weeks to get back to normal just try and get him to eat something and probably avoid pushing dairy food and it can make them lactose intolerant for a while.

Oh really? Thanks, tapster, I'll bear that in mind. Come to think of it, he'll eat milk with wheatabix but that may be because of the stronger taste of the cereal. He's definitely off cheese sauces and lumps of cheese which is a shame.

So glad I didn't give up the BF!

re vitamins and minerals, don't forget, you have a store of most of them for occasions like this, so don't worry
i know i felt weak for a few days after the end of symptoms, which is most unlike me
just take it easy and wait for it to pass - by the sound of it he's eating ok-ish

Thanks, min. I know I'm perhaps too impatient to get him healthy again.

The frustrating thing is he used to wolf anything I gave him with no problems at mealtimes. Now he'll just point to something he sees around him that he wants to play with at his highchair (fav toy, dummy, glass, cereal box etc) - something I tried not to allow before. Or he'll drop his water beaker and then point to it and will kick up a stink if I don't give it to him. If I do, he'll only drop it again after eating a few more mouthfuls. If I don't, he gets cranky and then refuses to eat anything further. He used to behave this way a few months ago but I became very strict with him and things improved a lot before December.

I know I shouldn't be too hard on him but I don't want him to take advantage.

I'm always amazed at the complexity of a 14 mo brain!!!

my ds is 15 mo today, and has behaved like this recently, so it may even be.........one of them damn phases!

My son got a bug at about 20 months and his weight chart had a really big dip and is only now coming back to normal after 3 months. I got all concerned and found he used my concern to manipulate me/ get attention by doing what yours is doing. So now, I encourage him to eat but if it's clear he's going to muck around, mealtime stops without any fuss. I also found it helped a lot to give him smaller meals with regular snacks in between (healthy stuff obviously) because he couldn't stomach too much food at one time. Hope this helps.

It's nice to hear your experiences too so thanks for that. I feared it was 'the phase' returning. He's such a sweet little boy with an angelic face but now it's time to get tough again - ha!

The good news is he ate better yesterday and had some squash and sweet potato. Poor thing suffered during the night though with trapped wind! He has eaten okayish today so far too so perhaps we're on the road...

Roll on the spring/summer!