15 MO won't eat, please come and talk sense to me!

[Bellagio]

As the title says, he's always been a crap eater but it's now got beyond ridiculous. I'm fed up throwing food away, fed up thinking about different things to try, he's just not interested in food at all. His weight seems to be ok but Ive no clue how. He has formula before bed only and cereal with formula in the morning (cows milk upset him so we've gone back to formula for now) sometimes this bottle and cereal is literally all he's eating ( the last 4 days this has been the case) I know some kids go off food when teething but this is continous.
What I'm looking for is some kind words from those whose kids ate next to nowt and survived! It's sooooo hard not to get wound up by it but I do try and also try to stick to the rules ie. Not offering alternatives, taking food away once he starts flinging/ playing with it. We've tried distraction/ no distraction, self feeding, eating with other kids, nothing seems to work.
Please share your words of wisdom with me I'm rapidly going round the bend with it!!
Thanks

My 15mo has episodes like these every once in a while.

My parenting theory is- he won't starve himself to death. The more you make a fuss of it, the more of a fuss it turns out to be.

For his future eating habits- I just let go (I know it's really really hard), and don't fight with him, beg him, or do things to distract or "sneak" food into his mouth.

Just leave it, as long as he's getting enough fluids so he doesn't get dehydrated, I'm not stressing with him about it.

Bellagio, firstly 15 mo old do's have no emotional relationship to food ; the flinging is just experimenting with his environment he's not being naughty please believe me!! let him play with pastry or whatever.

Go on with what you're doing but don't worry.

Offer him fingerfoods mash up fruit don't invest much energy in it. try not to force him and as Sayit... says make no comment.

just comment on it to the toddler, just ignore it. Keep placing food in front of him, chopped fruit, carrot fingers, toast, egg...

whatever you want really. He WILL eat, just dont make a big hooha about it. PRomise he wont starve himself.

Have you thought about trying something other than cows milk? Soya/rice etc. Try keeping a little note of what he does eat in a day, often it is more than you think, his cereal, a bite of toast, a bite of fruit - it all counts.

unless the kid has a medical condition - if he he hungry he will eat.

don't give him anything between mels - if he doesnt eat a meal - then he won't die - just bin it.

next meal he will eat.

Yis - deep breaths, try not to worry.

DD hardly ate anything for a few months around that age. Has been eating well recently (22 mths).

They go through phases.

My children have always been dreadful eaters as toddlers but are great eaters now. One of the best bits of advice I was given was by a paediatrician who said a child will not starve themselves. They can go for a month without food and do themselves no harm. Basically don?t stress too much (easier said than done). It is a phase that lots of kids go through.

(Incidentally the other invaluable piece of advice he gave me was don?t worry about a messy house. Once the children leave home you will have all the time in the world to tidy up. I feel vindicated now!)

If it's any consolation at all, my fussiest eater was DD who at 15 months subsisted entirely on fromage frais, toast and frozen peas. She's now a healthy and energetic 6 y.o whose favourite meal is homemade chicken pie, potatoes, sweetcorn and brussels sprouts!

If I knew what the answer was, I'd write a book and make my fortune. I can only assume that we got there in the end with patience, perseverence and letting her grow up in her own time.

It's so reassuring to hear this is happening to others!
DS is 20-mths and has a very short list of what he will eat: fromage frais, scrambled eggs, fruit toast, porridge, weetabix, fish fingers, mashed potato (but only if he sees it being cooked and mashes it himself). And that's it. I persevere with loads of different recipes but it is fairly soul-destroying to spend time and money cooking only for it to be refused point blank. So we generally stick to what we know he'll eat and try to stay calm about it. He's still on bottles of formula for bed and we give him vitamin supplements every day.
He's happy, energetic, not skinny, sleeps and poos well and isn't losing any weight. So we repeat like a mantra that he is growing and is happy and the food thing will resolve itself. But it is very hard some days.
A GP friend of mine also said - he will not starve himself.
Deep breaths & try not to make it a big deal.

Thankyou all soooooo much for all your input it's just what I needed to hear, some days are just so much harder than others. Little monkey has actually eaten quite well yest and so far today so here's hoping. I know I really need to chill out about it. This site is a godsend, thanks to all of you again