why won't she eat? Please help at my wits end!

[Rubysmom08]

DD had the tummy bug and virus going round and suffered for about 3 weeks, she picked up about a fortnight ago and started eating loads again, from tues last week it has become a battle to get anything in her! She is ten months and although I give her finger food she eats only very little and it is a long process. She will not eat anything other than yoghurt from a spoon and just the sight of the spoon sends her into madness!
She is cutting teeth at the moment so I have probably answered my own question but do I basically have to let her feed herself whether it takes 2 hours or not? Is this the way that they learn to eat quicker?

She has never been a very enthusiastic eater and rarely shows signs of hunger so it is difficult to judge. She is not waking in the night and doesn't seem to want anymore milk, she currently drinks 7oz of an 8oz at wake up time and bed time.

I have spoken to hv and she hasn't been super helpful soI just want some advice off you wise folk and tell me that everything will be fine!

She put on 5oz from when she was poorly but she is such a tiny mite and I just wish she would eat her food with gusto- I am trying really hard not to worry but it's hard not to want to cry!

For example yesterday:

banana and mango puree (as she refused her weetabix and banana) plus a youghurt and a few bites of banana. Luch she refused my lamb hotpot when we were eating at pizza hut and instead had 2 spirals of tomato pasta, 2 slices of apple, a youghurt and a piece of garlic bread. At dinner she ate a lastic cup full of cheesy veg, although I mized a spoonful with some pasta for her play with and sneakily managed to feed her the rest on a metal spoon as the sight of her pink spoon sends her bananas, finished off with a yoghurt!

Thanks in advance

firstly calm down. She will pick on your anxiety and it will make her worse.

Secondly she is eating - just not as much as you would like. Sounds enough to me. She is still eating a variety of food and she ate something at every meal time.

Thirdly - put yourself in her position. If you had recently got over a sickness bug and your teeth were hurting you probably wouldn't fancy much to eat either.

Let her take her own time eating, let her pick at finger foods. Relax and let her get on with it. She'll pick it back up in her own time. Don't pressure her or get anxious.

She'll be fine

No advice really but in a very simular situation here DD was more or less BLW from 6 months and was a really good (Messy) eater. After a virus that lasted almost 6 weeks! she has been a lot more reluctant to eat and most meals are a battle. She also has became fussy eating from a sppon and now enjoys throwinf her dinner all over the floor instead of eating it

I took advice from my Mum and am still offering the same things she used to like at regular times. The last couple of days we have had a bit of a breakthrough with cheese butties. She actally ate them!! She is still drinking 2 bottles a day tho so am not too concerned ATM.

I would say if she is showing no signs of hunger in the night etc I wouldnt be too worried. Maybe try and give her foods like cheese and youghurts etc so what little she does eat might fill her up? Like I say Im no expert - just saying what worked for me

Also new spoons are a good idea - buy some brightly coloured ones that are as different from her old ones as possible and intruduced them in a 'oohhh look at these lovley shiney new spoons, arnt they so wonderful' kind of way - worth a try

thanks for your advice armadillo it is really hard not to get down beat about this though I am trying to be all positive and up beat but I am worried about her health.

Kelix, it's a nightmare isn't it! I just don't know a way round it at the mo!

Try remembering that you are biologically programmed to worry - it would be odd if you didn't! Also babies do not eat when they are teething and this can go on for ages. Your baby eats way more than mine ever did and she will be fine. Honest.

well nothing for dinner! she keeps sucking her thumb, managed to get a plum pot of banana and mango down her as well as a yoghurt she was offered carrot, cheese and lentil puree but refused, she also refused a satsuma I was eating and showed interest in, jam sandwiches and also pasta with cheese sauce. I have given up for the night!

am confused - did she have the fruit pot adn yoghurt for dinner, or was that a seperate meal and she had nothing at all?

Missing one meal a day won't hurt. She is only 10 months old, she only needs tiny amounts. A fruit pot and yoghurt is enough food for a meal - their stomachs are about the size of their fist. You say she is still drinking milk (albeit it twice a day) and that she has gained weight.

If she really wasn't eating enough - as in enough to keep her going, her weight would be dropping and she would faint/be very lethargic.

If she is none of these things then you need to stop worrying about what she is eating.

sorry armadillo- she ate a pot of banana and mango and a big peiti fleous but I don't see these as proper food, she wouldn't eat the cheesey pasta and fish pie I offered her... I just don't want to encourage her just eating sweet stuff

then don't give her the sweet stuff or limit it to one meal a day.

Think of how much food a petit filous and a fruit pot is. Especially when compared to the size of her stomach. I wouldn't expect a 10month old to have room left after that.

sorry to come on strong, but my ds has eating probs and I did everything wrong to start with and ended up living a nightmare.

I know it is hard, but getting anxious over it really doesn't help.

You need to step back and relax and trust her to eat as much as she needs (or at least the minimum amount).

Children aren't programmed to starve themselves, and any child under 1yo is going to be living mainly off milk and just trying/tasting food.

They need very little as they have tiny stomachs - look at the size of her fist and compare it to the amount of food she has eaten, say in one meal.

Your job is to provide your child with a healthy balanced diet. Their job is to actually eat it - you cannot take that step for them or force them, you have to trust the child to take it themselves.