DD hardly eating

[Rosa89]

Hi

My DD is 15 months and is hardly eating. She had a number of molars come through last month and is no longer teething as far as I can tell but she still isn't eating as much as she used to. She has a few bites, maybe 4 of any meal I make or a couple bites of toast and then shakes her head and pushes food away. She does this at every meal including breakfast and won't eat any snacks other than raisins.

I'm really concerned that she's not taking much in and is a very active baby as she has just started walking.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

How much milk does she have? Often they fill up on that rather than solid food.

Maybe stop the raisins and see if she eats more at meals? She likely needs an average of about 1000 calories a day but it won't always be that much, how much milk does she drink if any? Is she still on formula because two bottles of it a day would pretty much be enough for a 'non-hungry' day? I always found ds would go through phases of not eating much but would suddenly then eat all before him, I assumed it was to do with growth spurts.

A good test is to take her to someone else's house IMO. I always found ds would eat loads at grandma's.

Thanks for your responses. She has two bottles about 6oz each a day. It's full fat milk. One bottle first thing and one one before she goes to sleep. Is it worth cutting this down?
She doesn't have raisins all day but maybe I shouldn't offer it to her so that maybe she at least tries the fruit. My mum says that she eats OK when she's there which makes it all the more frustrating.

This has been going on for a good few weeks now. She used to at least finish a meal before but it's like she's gone off everything

I would start by halving the morning bottle, and yes I would cut the raisins, or make them part of a meal. See how you go but she may just be getting all her calories from milk and raisins.

I'm sure you've thought of this, but assuming you're not seriously concerned about a medical issue I wonder whether it's become a bit of a vicious cycle where a brief phase of eating less due to teething led her to pick up on your concern about her not eating, and she's now not eating because she knows she'll get a reaction from you, or get offered something nicer if she doesn't eat it.
I would suggest:

• decide at the beginning of the day what the 'menu' for that day is
• offer your chosen meal to her, if she doesn't eat stay very calm and then don't offer anything else. She will not waste away in a few hours before the next meal.

-if you're struggling to stay calm then maybe do the washing up, read a book or eat your own meal while she's eating to take your mind off what she's doing.

Oh and stop worrying - if she eats well somewhere she's doing fine

Thank you both. I will try halving the morning bottle and leaving out the raisins. I think the staying calm is something I really need to work on rather than trying lots of things and then just getting frustrated when she doesn't eat any of it.
Plus she isn't wasting away!