DS (2.9) eats like a bird - anyone else been there and come out the other side

[MrsWB]

My DS eats hardly anything compared to his friends. He is fairly fussy though not to extremes - think it is just normal toddler fussiness. He just has very little appetite and is always more interested in everything else than food. He is just below the 2nd centile and generally happy and energetic and sleeps well, so I know he is ok in himself, it would just be nice to see him eat a bit more than survival rations.

Am not really looking for a magical solution (we have tried lots of things like cooking and eating together, and bribery etc, without much success) but am interested to know if anyone had the same situation and found it improved by itself with age?

Me me me - I was going to post on this for someone else - but you beat me too it.

My DD1 went very very fussy at 18 months - stopped eating meat, veg, you name it.

As you said, bribary, going to bed with no food, no puddings etc etc hasn't worked at all.

But now, at 3.6 she has out of the blue decided she'll eat chicken, veg and potato. And even stranger, she is happy to try ANYTHING. Everything new she is spitting out, but hey, at least its going in.

We didn't do anything special, she just decided to start eating. 2 years of stressing to get that far though.

Good luck - its not nice to see little ones not eating is it.

Our DS is 3.5, and he is still rather picky about his food. He has certain favourites, and it can be a bit difficult to get him to eat some vegetables or meats. We have had to resort to mixing some veg into other things when we can, but we're really just working on having him eat what everyone else does, instead of just not eating or just eating a piece of bread with butter on it. I have noticed a few things recently that he has been more open to trying, so I'm hoping we'll have some improvement soon.

the normal meal size or sufficient meal size for small 2 yr old would be 2 tbsp per portion so 6tbsp per meal this is sufficient

its 1 tbsp per portion per yr of age so may look like not eating enough yet could be eating the required sufficient amount

i used this rule with my ds once i was informed and became a lot less anxious around food

My ds was terrible around this age (wouldn't eat everyday, only ate maybe a piece of toast a day when he did eat). Now at 5yo he still doesn't have a huge appetite and is still very fussy.

There are a few things that helped us.

1. Not stressing over it - the more you stress the more they are reluctant to eat.

2. We tried all the same techniques and didn't have much success - so just go with calm and cheery at meals

3. We were told by HV that a kids multivitamin can help (abidec is a liquid one from supermarkets) as they can become anemic through not eating enough and anemia can cause lack of appetite and so becomes a cycle. It doesn't necessarily need to be bad enough to become a problem but the multivitamin can't do harm.

4. 90% of children no matter how severe become less fussy and better eaters around the ages of 5-7 (mostly when peer pressure starts to become a factor) so it will almost definately improve with age. This is why NHS won't provide assistance until the child is older unless they are hospitalised through lack of eating.

5. As long as he appears healthy (isn't lacking in energy/sleeping well and not too much etc) they are getting what they need. And different children need different amounts of food.

6. Does he still drink a lot of milk? As this can fill them up and make them less hungry.

Mostly if he seems healthy enough (as you say he is) then it most likely is something that will improve with age - though you are maybe talking years rather than months (IYSWIM). If you or his father are small build then he maybe just naturally so and so not need as much as larger contemporaries.

My ds was like this at about same age. He started off eating anything and everything once weaned but then somewhere between the age of 2.5 - 3yrs he became very fussy. He would say he didn't like things he had previously liked. He refused to eat what was on his plate and would ask for something different. He would spit things out after chewing them and deciding he didn't like it - even if it was something he had liked before. As for trying anything new he would completely refuse even a small taste. Things started to improve when he started school (don't know if it was the starting school that triggered this or just coincidence was at same age). Now he is 5.5 yrs and I can't stop him eating! Came home from school today and ate a sandwich, some cheese, an apple and a banana and then went on to complain he couldn't wait for his dinner because his tummy was rumbling. If offered something new now he asks what it is then shoves it in his mouth.

Oh yes. Ds1 was never fussy in terms of what he would eat but quantities were always tiny and he seemed to have no appetite at all.

He was always energetic and pretty much healthy (apart from coughs and colds) but I used to worry and worry about it. He is small and was underweight even for his inconsiderable height.

Then at about 3.5 his appetite just kicked in. He has always grown (but is still just under the 25th percentile for height and the 9th for weight) but now eats what I would consider a 'proper' sized meal and is hungry 3 times a day. Blessed relief!

Ds2 was a big baby and is now a short, stocky slab of muscle and has always eaten well, notwithstanding ordinary toddler fussiness. The contrast is amazing.

Anyway, just remember if he is active and healthy he obviously is getting what he needs (however insufficient it appears).

Thanks to everyone who replied to this and to the other dupicate threads I posted by mistake (sorry - not sure what happened there!).

It's really good to hear about so many of your DCs who were the same but developed an appetite eventually. Who knows, maybe my DS will be inspired to eat more when I wean his baby sister in the spring - here's hoping......

I wouldn't worry so long as he is maintaining his centile. At that age ds was under the care of a paed consultant (for other medical issues) and I mentioned to him I was concerned at how little ds ate (especially compared to his friends). Paed said that at that age they could live on air!

Ds is 5 now and a far better eater than he was at your ds's age. What really helped was starting school and having school lunches. He was used to eating with others as he had been at a CM but for some reason his eating improved immensely at school (took a few weeks in to term to see an improvement though!). I assume it was eating with all his classmates and his teacher that finally made the difference.