At wits' end with DS - refusing food

[AmIDoingThisRight]

DS is 2 years old and for the past couple of days has been absolutely refusing to eat his lunch.

He'll pick at breakfast, eating his toast and maybe one spoonful of porridge, then stops. Lunch is turning into a nightmare - literally will not take a single bite of his food and will only eat his pudding, which is usually yoghurt and fruit.

Up until the beginning of the week he was a fantastic eater and ate most things with gusto - now it's 'no no no' and refusing to even try.

Had a mild temperature on Wednesday which calpol sorted out. He seems to just want to cuddle constantly at the moment which made me think he might have picked up something from playgroup, but he seems generally smiley and chatty otherwise.

Please tell me this is a very common phase and will pass really quickly - am really not amused at all by the whole thing.

It's common. Be all smiles and praise when he eats the yoghurt. Offer the other part of lunch and be, again, all smiles and praise if he has a nibble at that as well. Nothing negative... no pleading or looking worried etc. He could easily have a sore throat or something which would make a cold yoghurt more appealing and mess with his appetite. Obviously don't offer more snacks in the afternoon.... if he's nicely hungry for supper he'll tuck in, no problem.

Thank you Chil1234 - I will try the no snack thing and hopefully he'll be really hungry later. Can't quite believe that he seems to prefer to live on thin air at the moment.

Children have a very good self-preservation instinct, I've always found. Few will voluntarily starve Offer the foods you'd like them to eat at mealtimes and if they don't want them you say 'that's OK but this is all there is until the next meal'.... If they get the idea that refusing lunch means they'll get biscuits to top up (because it's normal to worry when they're not eating enough and think 'anything is better than nothing') then there's no incentive to eat lunch.

I'm sure he'll be just fine.

It sounds to me as though he doesn't have much appetite, so I wouldn't force the issue. That's exactly how my daughter (2.5) was recently (not eating, preferring light things like yoghurt/fruit/toast and wanting cuddles), and I'm pretty sure it was because she wasn't feeling very well.

In any case, I think they have phases with food. My little girl does have phases when she is picky or won't eat very much, but overall, her appetite is healthy and she eats her vegetables, etc, so I don't worry about the odd blip.

DD (also 2) is exactly the same so i truly suspect it is an age thing! We were a bit confused as to what to do as DS (6) was always such a good eater! We have taken the decision to offer her lunch/tea etc. as normal, praise if she eats it, if she chooses not to, that's fine but nothing else until teatime. Somedays she has barely eaten a thing recently but, as someone else has said, I throughly believe she won't starve herself and it is merely a phase. It is hard because i don't want her to go hungry but we will see how we go!

Sore throat? My ds went through a phase like this at about 2 and we discovered after about a week that he had a mild throat infection

It's only been a couple of days, I know it's hard but try not to sweat it at this stage. My daughter (nearly 3) always goes off her food when she's got a bug or getting over one, and sometimes it happens for no obvious reason. Her appetite always picks up after a few days.

Don't make a big deal about it, just take his lunch away after a while if he doesn't want it, give him his yoghurt as normal. I'm sure his eating will pick up again soon.

Well, called out the emergency doctor today because DS seemed listless and had no energy, still refusing to eat. Apparently he has a mild throat infection, and is enjoying being cuddled all the time. In fact, doctor said I had to be careful not to molly-coddle him as he will start to enjoy being poorly if I'm not careful.

How can I not cuddle him if he needs a cuddle though? And of course he'll be feeling unhappy if he's got a sore throat - was really quite annoyed with him (doctor, not DS!).

Will try some rice pudding later and see how that goes. It really doesn't get any easier, does it?

What a load of rubbish - cuddle him all you like!

I thought it was complete rubbish too! Have absolutely no intention of stopping cuddles, poor little fellow.

Cuddle him as much as he needs. My little darling ds is 2.3 and has been ill on-off with a fever for a month now. I have been sleeping with him when he had a fever as he couldn't settle and was sick. I ve known where this will lead though...he wants me to sleep with him every night now...however, you can't refuse your attention when they are unwell. Once they are well again you can battle through and set them straight again! So cuddle away and I hope he'll be well soon.