11month Old refusing to eat....help !!

[LisamarieD]

I would be really grateful for any tip or advise regarding my 11 month old DS. Since over a week ago my DS has refused to eat anything !! His gums are bothering him as he is chewing everything (including his teat on his bottle) but his cheeks aren't inflamed and he does not have a temperature and is generally a happy boy.

Previous to this he enjoyed his food and ate the family diet no problem. He is not unwell so I am really worried as he is eating hardly anything and does not even appear to be hungry !! As this is day number 9 of this trend I'm getting concerned.

This is a typical day of what my DS has ate and drank over the last nine days:

Early moring - 20mls of his bottle.

B'fast - Two tea spoons of cereal & 1/4 of toast (the other 3/4 are thrown on the floor)

Lunch: Family diet mashed down or Stage 2 Jar (I tried Jar food to see if DS would eat that, but no joy) followed by fruit puree or yogurt. The main on a very good day DS will eat two/three teaspoons and generally NO dessert. Drink is water, usually one/two sips from cup.

Afternoon Snack: which is his bottle and a biscut. Ds drinks about 40 mls of milk and eat half of the biscuit.

Dinner: same as lunch

Bed time: 180 ml Bottle - on average Ds takes around 100 mls taken ( although last night ZERO !!).

I just don't know what to do at mealtime anymore, as soon as my DS sees the spoon coming towards him he just pushes it away and clamps shut his mouth. We gave him his own spoon to hold and he has started to try to feed himself (with a little help from us) but after two teaspoons he just throws his spoon down and refuses to eat. And he just wont let us feed him. He does seem to be hungry as when he manages to feed him self he enjoys it.

We keep hoping that one day Ds will wake up hungry but that just doesn't seem to be happening.

We are at our wits end !!

Any tips or advise will be gratefully received.

Thanks

Do you think he could be doing this to get attention? Seems to be working if it is.

My ds is also 11 months also won't let a spoon anywhere near his mouth. We do finger food - more goes in than you realise.

Don't get too worried (easier said than done) - no child has starved themselves. Just tell yourself every meal time that it's just a stage and he will come through it - wonder what the next thing will be

Thanks for that. It is hard not to get stressed, my Ds is on the light side anyway so he cant afford to loose weight. I just felt his gums and his two front upper teeth are coming threw so that prob has a lot to do with it.

What kind of finger food do you feed you DS ?

I tend just to give my DS toast, biscuits but wouldn't mind some ideas for some more substantial finger food.

Some finger foods ideas

cheese cut into sticks/cubes

Soft avocado pieces

cooked small pieces of potato
(I just pop in microwave for a few minutes - peel and cut into pieces - splash a bit of olive oil or butter on it and ds eats with his fingers)

vegetables cooked

Pasta (spaghetti is a favourite of ds as he plays with it but a lot goes in too - though messy)

rice cakes with mashed banana or avocado on

Soft pieces of fruit

grapes cut into quarters

beans/pulses such as chickpeas (might need to squash them first), haricot beans, kidney beans. I just buy the salt free/sugar free tins - very easy

Have you tried cutting up your food small but not mashing it and giving it to him to eat in small pieces? Ds had fed himself pieces of pasta and lasagne since he was about 8/9 months old.

Also have you tried one of those baby forks rather than a spoon? Ds was watching us eat and wanted to use the forks so when he had his own he was really happy and used it loads.

My DS is nearly 14 months old and went through a stage of keeping mouth clamped shut unless he had something to distract him - piece of lego, paper envelope, spoon, toy - and while he was playing with that, I would wave spoon of food under his nose and mouth would open - and once he got a taste of food, he would happily carry on tucking in - worked most days, anyway.

Please do not worry my ds is 18mths now and only recently started to eat very well in fact he has his 3 meals, plus snacks in between and milk.I never though id see the day when i would be struggling to fill him up .

My ds was constantly like this when he hit that age I found that distraction sometimes worked. I would always give him a piece of bread and butter with his meal which he could feed himself and then I would try to spoon feed the rest. Sometimes he would only have a couple of spoonfuls though and so its very frustrating i know.

Another thing I found was at this age they are very much into finger food and also into using their pincher grip and so ds would refuse to eat anything unless it was cut into tiny pieces. He loved raisins, sweetcorn, peas and beans anything tiny that he could practice to pick up.

You may also find that your lo will go through phases and have days where they eat loads and other days where they eat nothing.You need to measure what they eat during a week and not just in one day. And just keep reminding yourself that they wouldnt starve themselves even though it seems it. As long as he keeps putting weight dont worry.

Hi, The trick might be to relax about it. My 13 month old was just the same about a month ago. It seems that as soon as she gets the slightest cold or anything she's off her food. She's quite small anyway (18lbs) so I panicked a bit too. Eventually she just started eating slightly more each time, and now she eats a whole 7 month size jar plus a yoghurt size pud every meal, which is loads for her. I think it might be a bit of an independence thing too as they are just starting to be able to fend for themselves a bit better. I found that Organix bars and Heinz toddler vegetable biscuits would get eaten if i fairly much left her to it. Standing over them and getting stressed and worried doesn't seem to help - but I know it's hard not too. Why not take him to be weighed and see what the HV says?