stopped eating - desperate

[last]

My 9 month old has stopped eating totally having had a brillant apetite and eaten just about everything. Had begun (and loved) finger foods and feeding himself. Now it has just trailed off and for the past 7 days has eaten NOTHING. For the past 3 weeks we have tried everything except the very sweet route. Ignoring; sharing our plates; stuff scattered around; two spoons; stuff on bread EVERYTHING i can think off. WHen he first stopped reverted back to constant breast feeding. I have now stopped feeding him from 10.30 am to 7.00pm and he has a cup of formula (happily) at 3.00 but the lack of breast milk has not restored his eating; just stopped him sleeping and means he feeds off me all night. He has also begun to sleep much less(40 mins yesterday) but apart from getting more tired is still full of life and energy. But his shit is now green and runny. Has this happened to anyone else???? His starting to be weaned (which we had always planned to do now as his Dad has holiday) does not feel very real or permant (his Dad looks after him in the afternoons) unitill he starts eating. WHat do I do??? I thought time would sort it out but is over 3 weeks since he last ate more than 2 bites. He will still gnaw on bread but for a second.

last- just a thought- could he be teething? He may have gone off solid food if his gums are sore. I would b/f as much as he wants during the day to save yourself the night feeds, I'm sure it won't last much longer.

BTW- if he'll take sweet food, why not? My dd absolutely loves the Hipp jars of peaches with honey, and will eat this even when I can't persuade her to eat anything else!

dear last - it can be so worrying when they suddenly stop eating. I started a thread on exactly the same thing when my ds was about that age. Suddenly he just lost all interest in food. The most important thing is not to let him see you are anxious about it otherwise it quickly escalates into an 'issue'. My ds - and i think this is quite common - started eating again just as suddenly as he stopped, after about five or six weeks. I think it was teething. good luck. HTH.

I would let him breastfeed until he starts eating again. You might want to get a stool specimen checked at the doctors, it should not be green/runny - he could have a viral infection which is putting him off food even though he does not seem unwell.

Our ds also went off food when teething and by trial and error we reverted to a diet of Heinz Pure Fruit jars and Boots/Hipp jars containing fennel, which is soothing. However I would also advise a visit to the Doctor since it has gone on for over a week. As a general rule I think you are supposed to view a "balanced" diet over a period of a week but if it is now purely a liquid diet then I would also be concerned.

Coincidentally our dd who has just turned one has also suddenly upped her milk intake.

Good luck

Lizs

My daughter has just started wanting me during the night again, have you tried lots of milky foods during the day mine loves rice pudding and yogurt maybe it would help??

My DD (8 months) has had a couple of periods of not wanting solids after being very good with them. She is also going through one at the moment and has not really been interested in anything except breast since the weekend. It has co-incided with her coming down with a cold/earinfection and when that has cleared up, she has been fine again with solids. I would breastfeed her and offer her solids but put no pressure on. Teething also seems to have the same effect.