My 1 year old won't eat lunch or dinner!

[Tracy551162]

My 1 yo son has always been a fussy eater. Took 6 weeks to wean properly at 7.5 months, and even breastfeeding and bottle feeding went through maany phases of trauma and screaming. I know he likes and has eaten everything without fuss. He's had neat spinach and gulped it down. I've always given him a wide range of foods too.

For the last 3 or so months he's either had a temperature every other week, or he's beeen teething, and during these times he wouldn't eat proper savoury food. He'd always catch up once he was better and then eat massive meals for 3 days. For the last 3 weeks he hasn't had a temp or been teething and he won't eat lunch or dinner. He wolfs his breakfast and would happily live on banana and yogurt. he refuse sto eat everything else. I've tried jars, home cooked, mashed and feeding him myself, letting him play with the food and feed himself, finger food, everything. He's just not interested. He sometimes won't even try and just starts crying when he goes in his chair. Other times he takes two mouth fulls and then no more and starts crying. The annoying thing is that sometimes after his evening milk he cries so much and is so hungry I end up feeding him half a massive 500g tub of plain yoghurt (his favourite).

One HV says give him whatever he'll eat. The other says he should want to eat because he's hungry and not greedy for the foods he likes, and she says to not givehim the foods he likes in response to hius fussing. On the whole I;ve taken the food away after 15 mins if he's been crying or fussing.

He's not putting on weight (he hasn't put on weight for 11 weeks and is now on the 2nd percentile) but is fine. Sleeps well no matter what, behaves the same, still has fun and plays, is always laughing and does not stop charging around all day long. Just that by evening he is starving sometimes.

Doc says so long as he takes milk no probs, so what should I do? He's only had two mouth fulls for lunch and dinner for the last 5 days.

So worried that he's not getting enough to grow. Been giving vitamin drops to compensate and despite being over one still give formula to get nutrition. Any tips would be great.

Just give him banana and yoghurt and offer little bits of other foods-finger foods like toast with cream cheese or Marmite,little bits of whatever tou are eating-they will often take it from your plate and not from their own.Dont worry too much soon there will be a growth spurt and a big appetite again.Just a thought could he be cutting back teeth?They often feel sre coming through.Good Luck.

How many formula feeds are you giving him? Any more than one in the morning and one at night, could be messing with his appetite.

Also I agree - perhpas offer banana and yoghurt at every meal plus a couple of other bits - his body will know what he needs for now and it sounds like he's after comfort food / carbs.

I would also cut the banana in to slices and mix with greek yoghurt in a bowl and let him pick the banana out with yoghurt attached as it were and then add other fruit in too (e.g. blueberries, strawberry halves etc). And try mashed banana on toast and just build up.

Try not to worry though - it seems like something may be going on like teeth - we always have our favs when we're not feeling 100% and so it could be that?

DD was like this - it was a total nightmare and you have my sympathies. She also (weirdly) loved Greek yogurt and went through a tub a day! In the end, I mixed everything in Greek Yogurt - small quantities at first and then reducing the amount of yogurt until there was more food than yogurt iyswim.

I'm sure if there was anything to worry about your Doc and HV would not be so supportive. Maybe keep a food diary over a week (rather than a day) - it's surprising how much they do get in them despite you feeling as though they're starving themselves.

I often let DD "share my plate" as well to try to encourage her - I'd pretend to be really annoyed if she ate my food - she loved that!

It does get better honestly - DD is nearly 5 now and eats a much wider range of foods.

Get him checked out by your GP, and as long as he's OK, do what the other posters have suggested.

Lots of kids go through stages of being very, very fussy eaters - as long as there is no underlying medical problem, just try to relax and not show DS that his refusal to eat is bothering you. (Easier said than done!).

Sounds like my DS a few months ago. He too was very very fussy, wouldn't eat barely anything.

Probably not the text book way of doing things but i gave him his breakfast first in the morning - knowing full well that a change to his routine would make him refuse his milk. Then gave him a large range of finger foods at lunch, followed by yoghurt/diary pudding. Then a hot tea and yoghurt etc, with a afternoon snack of fruit in between. It took a few days but he now eats a good breakfast, refuses any milk at this time but i make sure he has 3 servings of milk based puddings a day + his bottle at night. HV told me off for not giving morning bottle but he is now gaining weight well and eating fine.

HOWEVER have to say that we did change his formula to C & G comfort at 8mths which helped alot with fussing, and also he did have asthma which i am convinced affected eating, however not recently or in relation to the above so i would second getting GP to rule out any underlying problem.

I also found that i had got so worked up about it that i was not helping. Got DH to do feeds in evening for a few days and he got alot better, i was calmer too.

I know its really stressful isnt it. I'm not suggesting the above is appropriate to your LO or indeeed the correct thing to do but worked for us!

Bear in mind that babies at this age don't put on much weight at all anyway. My dd is 14 months old and hasn't really put on much weight for a few months now, and she eats well. But she does eat less than when she was 8-10 months old and putting on loads of weight. You must be going up the wall but the best thing is probably to try and keep calm and give him what he wants and accept it when he says no!

Do you eat with your LO? My DS (now aged 22 months) went through a stage of saying "no" to whatever I put on the table in front of him, but my mum suggested eating with him, and it's a revelation! He's still quite limited in what he eats, but will have a go at most things if I've got a few mouthfuls on a plate and am sitting with him. I found that it prevented me from sitting over him watching him eat, which I can see might be a bit intimidating! I made a big fuss about how delicious my tea was, and ignored him, and it seems to be working. Often he'll say "eat pasta a-gebber" (together) if I don't sit down with him straight away! He'll eat off my plate too, cos mummy's tea always more tempting! Worth a try perhaps? Otherwise, just go with what he will eat - bananas excellent if you can get them into him. I do sympathise, cos it's completely maddening!

We ALWAYS eat together but my DS is STILL fussy. Have always given him wide range of foods, used to eat everything when he was little....now, no chance! He still sleeps fine, loads of energy etc too, not put weight on (but not lost either). Tis a mystery, but he looks a picture of health so something is right with him!! he is 21 months BTW oh and no way will he eat a banana apples and oranges and strawberries, yes

Hi,

I’m looking for advice but struggling to understand all the different acronyms being used such as an LO, DD, DS? What do they all mean?