Doesn't Eat

[motorbike]

My daughter is now 32 months old and she has NEVER eaten "normal food". As a baby she was a good feeder and when she stated eating she ate from jars. When i tried to put her nto home cooking - I added a small amount of potato to one of the jars of food - she would nt eat it and has not eaten jars or normal food since.
She has never tasted a potato, chps sausage or anything and although she sits with us at mealtimes and has the same food as un her plate (which she asks for) she does not eat it and will only try and feed myself and my husband.
She eats whotsits, chocolate yoghurt, fimble chocolate and quavers - she will drink milk but only out f a bottle and she drinks lots of juice and water.
Help!!

Hi Motorbike, it's funny you should have created this thread as I was about to do one too! My 20mth DS1 sounds exactly like your DD. He also ate quite well as a baby suddenly at 9mths stopped eating for a week during the summer. After that it became erratic - he is underweight (I mean you can see his ribs sometimes and his bum is smaller than his head ) We have seen a paed and nutritionist and their advice worked for a while but now he's all weird again. Just tried lunch. Maybe 1 meatball and several spaghetti hoops. There are days when he just has 1 small meal a day. Still on milk at night and 1 in the morning but I've found quantity of milk doesn't alter much - at least they're gettin their vitamins.

Sorry, this message isn't much help to you but maybe it will make you feel a bit better and if you need to chat, just shout!

p.s.- starving him doesn't seem to work either - too strong willed

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motorbike - sorry its so hard to feed her, but milk is almost a food in itself so you really need to just give her water and then she should be able to get hungry and should be more tempted to eat 'real food'.

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Minkmama, it is good to hear your child has a similair problem. When you saw a nutritionalist etc what advice did they give you - any tips i could try.

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My ds is going through this at the moment as well. I don't really understand what it means but the HV says he's on the 91st centil for height and the 51st for weight. (92cms and 11.8kgs). I've given up trying to force him. I've tried reasoning with him and that hasn't worked either. It's heartbreaking when they won't eat properly. The only stuff mine will eat is weetabix with fruit puree (breakfaast only), fromage frais, biscuits, chips and occasionally chicken nuggets. We tried starving him and he refused to drink after a while and after 1 day of no water, juice or milk, I couldn't keep doing it. I've decided not to stress about it and be happy about what he does eat. I know it's not a good diet but I don't want him to be frightened of food or mealtimes. He's happy and full of energy and I'm thankful for that.
Have you tried adding vitamins to her food if you're concerned that she's not getting enough?

This was me with my 4.5year DD up until recently (I think I wrote a thread a while back about Fussy Eaters).

She had an incredibly limited diet - Smily Faces, M&S chicken pieces, fruit, cereals, yoghurts, bread. I tried everything, not making a fuss/praising when she did eat etc etc. Advice I received from Paediatrician/GP/HV all said the same - feed her what she will eat but adding different stuff every now and then.

She was "fussy" as a baby, never fussed for milk, weaning was awful and it went downhill from then. As I said, this was up until recently - when one day she asked for some pasta that we were having. Wolfed it down!

She nows eats pasta, spaghetti bol, roast potatoes, chicken (and Chicken Kiev!), corn on the cobs, sausages, cheese, pizza. She gulps down fruit but she's always like fruit since a baby. Tried mashed potato last night but didn't like (down to texture I think - she's very fussy with textures/smells).

I weaned/fed her exactly the same as my other 2 but they've always been excellent eaters.

Fussy eaters are extremely hard work and at times very frustrating. I don't think people appreciate how hard it is unless you've had a fussy eater - when I had my first 2 I was very smug about them and thought "no child of mine will be fussy" Lo and behold, I got one with No 3

Sorry Motorbike, I've only just had a chance to join again- kids hey?

Well, the nutritionist we saw about 3 times before they discharged us, so this may have spanned several months from what I can remember. Be prepared for this to have all been heard before, but she told us to make eating a social occasion, to cut out milk (almost completely!), not to make not eating an issue and praise, praise, praise. (we now look v. silly in public )

To tell you the truth, and let me just say that I respect everyone's opinions on this matter but...I was loath to cut out all his milk partially because he has eczema and wouldn't stop scratching unless given it, but also because keeping it to night time didn't make him too full for breakfast. In fact, cutting his morning milk made no difference whatsoever and he actually had about 21oz a day with 4 meals at one point (sadly no more).

I did cut out morning milk and found it all quite heartbreaking and eventually listened to my own instincts and gave it back. Now i give it to him at around 10.30 after breakfast whether he's eaten a biscuit or nothing at all.

The most important thing is to listen to yourself as well as others and to not stress about one meal. If she doesn't eat it, move on to the next one. I definitely recommend seeing a nutritionist for moral support. They make you realise that you're not the only one and there are objective ways to handle the situation!

HTH

I saw a tip with regards to worrying about eating. For every spoonful eaten - put the same in a plastic sandwich bag (I know - sounds gross!) By the end of the meal you might be surprised as to how much has been eaten. And then think about how small a toddlers tummy is, and how easy to fill up. I know that this sounds silly - but it put our minds at rest when we realised just how much our ds was eating.
Hope that this makes sense

I'm sure I saw a thread here recently where someone said that a two-year-old only needs to eat about 7 tablespoons per day. Not a lot, is it? I keep telling myself this anyway. My dd is a poor eater atm (she's 3.6). My ds1 (now 5.6) went for nearly 2 years barely eating dinner but now is a really good eater and will try new things, which i find the most frustrating thing with dd as she won't try anything. We're just sticking it out and hoping it gets better if not paid too much attention!

I agree Ponygirl and Joanneg, I think you have to try to be as positive as possible and think about what they DO eat. I often try to visualise DS1's stomach and it makes me feel a lot better. I also believe that sometimes the more angry or frustrated you get, the less likely they will eat. That's what happened with us anyway...

motorbike, joining this thread a bit late. I hope things are ok with you? Just wanted to say that my 21 month old dd is also very fussy she eats (in minute amounts always) cheerios, baby corn, chips, broccoli (sometimes), pasta in tomato sauce. And that's it. No bread, no cheese, no other veg, no fruit. It drives me nuts. She's has bloody pasta in tomato sauce for tea for the last 6 months. I've tried for weeks on end offering her something else she might like at tea time and she just refuses it, goes to bed with no tea and doesn't eat any more the next morning than she would do if she'd had the damned pasta so I really don't go with the 'starving them' option. She drinks 2 small cups of milk a day and a cup of juice after lunch and a little water in the day if she's thirsty so I know she's not full of liquids.

Of course this is no help to you at all I'm afraid. I just wanted you to know you're not alone. And also to re-ask some questions others have asked like when did this start? How the heck does she maintain such a good weight on just those foods? Does she really truly eat nothing but them? How much of them a day does she eat? My dd is on the 25th centile. She was the same at birth but when b/f went up to the 50th. The moment I stopped b/f she went down to her now small weight.

Do keep us posted as to how it's going?

Motorbike, don't wish to intrude but I have been thinking about you and hope it is going better with yr DD. Do keep us posted and be assured of positive support here.

You can get Bob the Builder, Scooby Doo and Thomas dry pasta now and make your own nutrional sauces. Avaialble in Asda and Morrisons.

By motorbike on Thu 15-Jul-04

Yorkie73 I would hope this has been solved 5yrs later.

My DD was a nightmare to wean, really didn't eat anything until 13 months (BLW as refused purees), seemed to live off pasta & pesto until she was 2, no breakfast, has never drunk milk (was BF until she was nearly 2), cut down her feeds before she self weaned but did not improve her appetite. Now at 2.5 years old she is starting to eat new things. I did let her eat the things she enjoyed eating so she would get something into her and put other new foods - same rotation of a few on her plate. It took a year for her to eat a carrot and now loves them. She has eaten mash today for the first time ever.

I wouldn't do the starve them until they eat what you want to eat - too stressful on them IMO. I think she gets bored at meal times - reading to her during dinner has helped although a bit tiresome for me!