17mo still BFing but has stopped eating most solid food, what's going on?

[YankNCock]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but would like to hear from other BFers about any experience of a BFing toddler refusing almost all food.

DS is 17mo. At 15.5mo we were down to one BF per day in the morning and he was eating very well. Then I went into hospital and couldn't feed him for 5 days. When I came out, he BF more often and we haven't really tried to reduce down again.

Over the last 4-5 weeks he's gotten more and more fussy, throwing his food, refusing to even try things, which is completely not like how he was before. I know he's been having more teeth coming in so had put it down to teething and thought his eating would pick up as he started feeling better.

However, the teething seems to be done and he's not drooling or chewing his hands as much, BUT he is still refusing most food and seems to be BFing to make up for it.

The final straw for me this week was him refusing dinner then waking me up at 2am for a feed! He's been sleeping through 7-6:30 for well over a year so this is really unusual.

I don't know if I should reduce feeds to try to encourage him to eat more solid food, or only give him things he never says no to like fromage frais, or just carry on feeding on demand and hope he starts eating again soon?

Sorry so long, I am really over this.

Hmm. How did he eat when you were in hosp? (Hope you're ok, btw). It's hard to know what's best at this age - ds is about the same age - will he do things like steal from your plate if he's on your knee? ds will often each much better like this, if he thinks it's contraband. It could just be the beginning of Having An Opinion, of course...

I am ok thanks, I had campylobacter (food poisoning) but still under investigation as they originally and still do suspect ulcerative colitis.

DH says while I was in hospital DS 'had the hump' first thing in the morning with not having breastmilk, but other than that ate pretty well.

He does seem to want what on our plates more than his own, even when they are clearly the same thing, and sometimes we can cajole him into eating more by feeding him using our forks instead of his toddler fork/spoon. So maybe some of it is him just being stubborn?

Today he ate nothing for breakfast (threw it), had a few bites of squash risotto for lunch, ate two pears for a snack, and had about half his tuna pasta for dinner. Along with that he had about 4-5 breastfeeds.

Could be developmental - there's a huge developmental spurt at around 18 months which messes with eating, sleep (the 18 month sleep regression), behaviour, mood etc.

There's more on this here, although the focus is sleep.

Although the behaviour you describe in your last post sounds very like my 13 m.o. at the moment. He's on nursing strike at the moment though so he isn't making up for it with bm.

DS is definitely keener to eat of our plates, usiing our cutlery, and has been like this since weaning. At this age I think the trying and eating is way more important than table manners etc so I'd just do whatever gets him most interested in eating more. yy to developmental spurt at 18mo - I remember this with dd. ds's sleep, on the other hand, is so monumentally shit that I've yet to notice any developmental changes affecting it...

Having read that link, I can see a lot of DS in that! He does seem to be making big leaps with language all of a sudden, and temper tantrums/frustration have really started in earnest now.

It's not so much table manners I'm worried about, I would just like him to feed himself in ANY way like he used to, rather than what seems to me to be a regression where we have to cajole and spoon feed him. We did BLW so it just feels weird!

I guess all I can do is try whatever tricks make him eat, and if that means feeding him off our plates, so be it. We tried that tonight, and didn't get much more in. He just turns his head and sometimes shakes his head 'no' and pushes everything away/throws it on the floor and announces he is 'done'.

Thanks for the reassurance ladies!