Encouraging return of appetite after illness

[honeybunny]

My ds1 (2yo) has been v poorly for the past 10days with an ear infection followed by bad chest infection. He's eaten nothing more than a piece of bread all day for the past 2weeks and now weighs less than he did at 16months. He's been prescribed steroids (3days) and a/biotics (2 lots)to get on top of the chest infection, plus salbutamol nebulisers. A real cocktail!
My plea for advise is how can I help stimulate his appetite. He simply won't eat. Fortunately he is drinking, but only orange juice. I'm giving him Haliborange multivit once a day and echinacea jnr drops to boost his immunity.
I've tried soups, refused. Firm favs like risotto, nope. He occasionally asks for a fromage frais but often only eats a couple of mouthfuls. Pasta with just a little butter/cheese, NO! Fruit...nope. I think you get the picture.
I'm getting increasingly frustrated by his refusal and sadly feel less and less sympathetic, especially when ds2 guzzles up everything in site and is a real pleasure to feed.

Does he like going out for lunch? I have had this with my dd2, and less so with dd1,and often going out seems to crack it. They get distracted/excited whilst there and dont realise what/how much is going in(we often go out for pasta/pizza).And once they've had one reasonable meal their stomach expands again,they start to feel hungry again etc etc. Go easy on the fluids for an hour or so before you go out too, so he dosn't fill up with juice. HTH.

Thanks Batey, I'll try this one in a few days I think as he's still so grizzly. We tried going out en famille y'day and he did nothing but whine to be carried. He did spot a muffin in M+S which we bought for him, but it just got carried around rather than eaten.

Have you tried egg bread, also known as French toast? I am sure he will make up in time.

Thanks Eulalia, yes we tried this one first. No go! Daddy had to eat it all.
I'm planning on involving him in making pancakes and muffins this afternoon in the hope that he might eat the results. Not exactly nutritious but anything is worth a go. He's still fast asleep at the moment. That's nearly 3hrs again. Hope he goes down ok tonight. To the Drs again in the morning for a progress report. Hope he's finally on the mend.

Thanks Eulalia, yes we tried this one first. No go! Daddy had to eat it all.
I'm planning on involving him in making pancakes and muffins this afternoon in the hope that he might eat the results. Not exactly nutritious but anything is worth a go. He's still fast asleep at the moment. That's nearly 3hrs again. Hope he goes down ok tonight. To the Drs again in the morning for a progress report. Hope he's finally on the mend.

oops!

My little boy was ill recently with an ear and throat infection, and when he wanted to start eating he would only have rice cakes with honey on them, and a few grapes. Would that work?

Isn't it tiring when they are ill??!! My dd was poorly when she was about 10 months..she also had 2 lots of antibiotics and some vile tasting vitamin supplements...she only eat fromage frais for days and only half of that. I went back to the old favourites with her...a farleys rusk, some apple, stewed, basically anything that meant she eat something! She soon regained her weight and her appetite. How about boiled egg and soldiers?
Keep your chin up...it won't last forever.

You poor thing - as everyone else has already said - it is exhausting and frustrating. My dd is food faddy at the moment and only wants to eat bananas,cheese or fromage frais. It is so disheartening making carefully prepared healthy meals and chucking them in the bin meal after meal.
I agree with Batey - if you watch the amount he drinks around meal time to stop him filling up on liquid that might well work. Keep trying - if they don?t like it one day, they may well like it the next!! Good Luck.
Just a thought, if he has shown a bit of a preference for cold food (bread, fromage frias) and orange juice - maybe he has a sore throat - ear and throat infections are often linked. Have you tried other cold smooth foods to slip down easily? cream cheese on soft bread? ice cream even? home made milk ice lollies?

Cream has loads of calories and you could add it to many different things like mashed bananas, mashed potatoes, fruit smoothies, custard, breakfast cereals - even put a little in your son's milk.

I see ice cream has already mentioned. That's my standby if my sons lose their appetite.

Oddly ds1 doesn't like icecream. (However did I manage this??!!) But along with Aloha's suggestion of cheesey mashed potatoes on a similar thread, I'll add a good slop of cream, thanks tigermoth. He's been right off his milk too, so will avoid making this too rich for now as he's been sick on really rich things. My fault pushing the calories too soon I think.
On a brighter note, he's managed a salmon and mashed potato omelettey fish cake thing (!) and a pot of raspbery wholemilk bio yoghurt for lunch today. Hurrah!! Tried one of the fruit muffins we made y'day with custard but not keen at all. Perhaps later!