help and advice needed pls???? food probs

[lilsmum]

dd 10 mths has always eaten anything put in front of her, good eater and not fussy. she is now on 8oz milk at waking...8 oz milk on weetabix and as a drink for brekky... stage 2 hipp jar and 2 small yogurts for lunch.. stage 2 hipp jar and a small jar of sweet for tea... and 8 oz bedtime milk. recently she has become very fussy wont eat more than a mouth full of the hipp food or her weetabix but will eat the yogurts and sweet. even gone off her milk too. do they go through phases?someone told me that when they have a growth spurt they eat less?!?! is this true. she doesnt seem to be eating much at all and therefore waking at 3am being hungry!!!she seems to have gone very fussy and wont eat much of anything really (by the way i think she is getting top teeth at mo)

pls help!!!

is she teething?

well... she has just got her 3rd bottom tooth last week, and her top gum is bulging at the front i am convinced i can actually see the white lines of teeth so near to popping through. she has been fine with getting her teeth up to now though. oh and i will add that if i am eating something/anything!! she will eat that but the food i give her and make for her she shakes her head and pushes the spoon away!! xx

DS stops eating and gets in a yogurt based diet when he is teething, he also gets off milk during the process or stops eating all together, sometimes for a couple of days. After 10 teeth my only advise would be to go with the flow, she is unlikely to starve herself and as soon as the teeth that are "active" at the moment are out of the painful phase she will go back to normal. In the mean time lots of patience.

thanks chandra... sound like that could be it!! just worried that she not eating much at all!!but i suppose the top teeth would in theory thinking about it be much more painful to cut through than the bottom (especially being bigger) guess i will just have to ride the storm and just keep offering bits of food.

thanks for the reply

xxx

my ds did exactly the same for a couple of weeks -ate only puddings or finger foods himself - wouldn't tolerate spoon at all.
I was getting rattier and rattier - then 2 or 3 days ago - caught sight of 3 or 4 new teeth up top. Bad mummy - he must have been teething - so I reckon yours must be the same - will all come right in the end - don't fret.

thanks tracey k, tonight i have even made up aload of fresh veg and blended it right down!! refused again!!still worried to be honest, she is having just milk and yogurts!! she was on just 2 bottles have to give them 4/5 times a day again now!!she still isnt sleeping well at all either waking up frequently through the night.she just winges when she has a bottle or yogurts. its a shame.

xxx

I've lost count of how many jars I've opened and had to throw away - or taken stuff out of the freezer and had to throw away.
Does she eat finger foods? they say around this age they assert their independence and want to feed themselves.
ds loves picking things up to eat - but it usually ends up in the dog - but he's getting better if I cut things into bite sized peices.

tracey k....yesterday i opened a jar of food... didnt want it. so i gave her finger food (milk roll with dairy lea on and fruit) she just plays with it and it ends up everywhere.im at the end of my tether with her. she used to be such a great eater i guess it must be her teeth. last night i had to dream feed her at 1am!! havent had to do that in so long!! you just get into a routine and manage to get into a good sleep pattern then the teeth from hell start!! lol

ds took 5 oz at his dream feed at 10.30! normally only takes 2 or 3. woke at 4am and ended up in bed with us (after a long struggle with dh trying to put him back in cot) so much easier to let him sleep cosy between us.
But i think any routine you love or hate in the first 12-18months will never last too long and then they change it - so enjoy the good ones and perservere with the bad.

Sounds like my dd! she gets fussy when teething, although with the wanting everyone elses food, I just gave in and thought stuff it, she can eat what we're having, so now less jars and more of what we have and she seems happier for it! (I wanna be a grown up mummy!) minus the excess salt and sugar of course!

lilsmum - how bout feeding her and you at the same time. I find ds wants whatever he thinks i'm eating - usally chocolate though!
or feeding her with other children? go to a friends house with kids and do them all together?

ok everyone still having problems with this and i am knackered!!!she is still waking through the night but twice now!! she wont even eat yogurt or porridge now and isnt fussed on her milk either!!!one of her top front teeth have slightly broken through is this really going to be the prob? she has never done this with any of her other teeth (this is 4th one) and i am at my wits end now!! feel like crying. she is over 98th centile for weight and height so nothing to worry bout there but its so frustrating, i even left her from her having 5 oz relucantly at 9am till 4pm and she still wouldnt have anything (giving her lots of fluids though) but is waking hungry at 1am then 4am!! its a vicious circle i need to break somehow but dont know how!!! btw i am giving her nurofen before she goes to bed.

PLEASE HELP!!!!

XXX

btw i have tried both of what tracyk and frizbe suggested... no luck!!!

xx

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Hi Lilsmum. Sorry I have nothing to offer you. I was reading this thread and realized that you have described my twins to a tee. They were fantastic eaters and now all they'll eat is the yogurt or the fruit pot. They like toast though, so toast it is. So, if anyone out there can help then please do because I am fit to drop. They are sleeping at the moment, but tend to play sleep tag through the night.

marslady.. that is so strange!!! my dd had toast twice today and managed to eat that!! how old are your twins?

xx

9 1/2 months. Maybe TracyK is right and they want finger foods for independence. I also think that maybe toast works because if they are teething it is something to bite into. I am so sleep deprived that I'm probably just going off on a tangent. As long as someone can give the perfect advice and get the dts eating and sleeping again then life will be good. Am about to offer them up on the swap thread lol

i feel the same lol, dd is up now. she will go to sleep but is very very disturbed wakes up every 10 mins!! ive give up and brought her down i may as well get used to the fact i will have no sleep tonight!! 1st night i have done this but i can cope more if i know i aint getting no sleep its cruel on my body and brain to get into the bed to just go off then to be woken!! i just hope it doesnt last long... this has been going on for over a week now (feels like a yr!!)please god let it end soon!! so i can go back to my hard earned decent nights sleep again lol

Hello lilsmum. It sounds as though you are going through a similar thing to me. My DS (19mths) used to eat really well too. Weetabix, porridge or shreddies for breakfast with a beaker of milk, big jar for lunch, followed by dessert, and then the same for dinner too. He also had a snack after his nap at about 3pm without ruining his appetite. I also try cooking too and give him what we have eg casseroles, roast dinners cut up into bitesize pieces etc etc. Even have given him oven chips, fish fingers and frozen mixed veggies. He has just gone through a phase where he would eat the jars, but not my home cooked stuff, but now he is starting to refuse everything that I give him. He also used to be a good sleeper, going to bed at 7.30pm and I woke him up at 7.30am, but now he is having very restless nights and I am having to go into him a couple of times and then he wakes at 5.30am and won't go back to sleep. The only way I get round it is to stick to my same routine and never give him anything during the night other than water, and if he wakes up early I don't give him breakfast until 7.30am. I have found that during the morning he gets quite tired and has fallen asleep on me (about 11.30am) so I have just given him his lunch when he woke up, and then dinner at 5.30pm. It is really, really difficult and I do sympathise, but if they are refusing food there is nothing that you can do because you can't force feed them, and that would have longer lasting effects if they associate feeding time with lots of stress. I am absolutely knackered but try to spend more time with other people when he is like this to share the burden - it seems to help! Sorry that I can't be more helpful, but I hope you get through it soon, and you can bet anything that it is down to teething. Keep smiling and remember you are not the only one going through this.

I haven't read the whole thread properly but if you think it is teeth have you tried putting teething gel on her gums just before a meal it might numb it enough to let her eat. Also my 2 both went off hot foods when teeth were coming through.
I also found that a way to get food down was to sit with a bowl of mashed food but also to have some in whole pieces and let them try to feed themselves while you put in the puree between mouthfuls so the tase is the same.

Also just provide lots of cold food like soft fruit of cold cooked veg to chew on when they are hungry , and the ever popular toast!

ds is getting worse again. only eating yoghurt and fruits - from the spoon - but nothing else! I really don't know what to offer him as I'm fed up throwing it all away after 2 mouthfuls.
I don't know whether to ration his milk in an attempt to get him hungrier - but then if he doesn't eat solids he'll be up in the night.
ps he eats solids at nursery.

traceyk if you come up with anything pls tell me dd is still the same...i am going to pull my hair out soon, went to gp yesterday as thought maybe she had ear infection she doesnt and i asked how long the lack of eating can go on... his answer... how long is a piece of string?!?!?! that good advice eh??

xxx

fat lot of use gp was!
I can only assume that he will eat when he wants to and that he won't starve. He will eat all the snacks I'm having - he had some banana and some crisps and some grapes today - but made him cheesey scrambled egg and he had 2 tiny mouthfuls and refused the rest. Then had half a pot of yoghurt and fruit straight after - so he was hungry.
I always say I'm not going to stress about it - but after 10 mins of trying to feed him I feel my blood pressure rising!
Am going to try and limit his breakfast milk tomorrow as he may be getting too much. He has both boobs at 5.30/6am and then about 5 oz at 7.30/8 - but then no b/fast and then nothing really till lunchtime.

Dts were up until 1.30am yesterday. Tonight, so far so good. They didn't go down until 9.45 though. They ate well today, probably because I was out and they'll do anything for daddy. Of course there are no teeth. I'm afraid to go to bed because they seem to know when I've put my head on the pillow and that's when they wake. I hope your little one is doing better today lilsmum. Wouldn't it be good to share success stories tomorrow instead? lol

marslady, my dd does exactly the same!! sound asleep but as soon as i get in bed she starts!! she seemed ok this morn slept her normal 8pm - 7am last night but is even worse today!! projectile vomited tonight and has been miserable since!! i wish she could speak and tell me whats wrong lol xx

hope dts's better soon.. touch wood eh??
xx