please remind me how toddlers can live off very little food.

[TheArmadillo]

Ds (2.7) had a not brilliant but not too bad day today with food.

Reading the thread on 3 yos reminded me how little he eats in comparison to other children

It would almost be better if he made a fuss at meal times or tried to avoid them or something, but he loves them. He loves investigating all the food and sitting down with everyone for a meal. DOesn't get into his mouth though

Paediatrician appointment in may though.

Just they can live off miniscule amounts of food can't they? He's tall for his age and isn't that skinny anymore. And he has plenty of energy.

Today he ate 3 times (yay)
breakfast - one mouthful of oatibix and one of toast (he usually eats one piece of toast)
Lunch - 3 oven chips and two pieces of cucumber (would usually eat more cucumber and a whole carrot)
Tea - nothing (not unusual)
Supper - 1 biscuit.
Plus one cup of milk. Lots of drinks.

Doesn't seem too bad now I write it all down.

Goodness, stressful, Armadillo. Does he just refuse to eat tea?

Did you ask for the paed app or did Gp decide to refer?

awww... can imagine how you feel.
how much does he drink? is that filling him up maybe?

yes

children can survive amazingly on fresh air

continue to offer healthy foods and then they will bee eaten eventually

personaly i wouldnt be giving biscuits to chidlren who had eaten no tea.

hungry children eat.... full stop

also make sure you arnt giving lots of sugary squashes cause they are full of calories and can fill them up

(i wouldnt gibe no sugar ones iethr due to all thsoe ghastly sweetners yuk)

persoanly id give a cup of milk and a cup of fruit juice per day and the rest water...

to make room for food

don't give squash.
Doesn't fill himself up on drink.

Does starve himself (problems with stomach leading to not wanting to eat hence paediatricians appointment - has taken about 18 months to get, and him getting so bad the pain/pressure was causing him to vomit alot).

WE have already had a Ultrasound scan and all his organs are fine, just an incredible amount of constipation (plus constantly swollen stomach). Which is good, but we don't know what is causing the constant constipation (drinks plenty, fibre supplements don't help, plenty of exercise etc.).

Just needed reassuring he can survive on fresh air

Ds has improved so much and eats so much more than he used to. Its just when it hits me how much more other children eat and what he eats is very little, it upsets me and makes me worry again.

Stupid really. He has improved hugely. The changes have been more than we could have expected.

Armadillo. DS doesnt eat much more than your LO although somedays he eats more than others. I've stopped worrying about him as he is growing well, has plenty of energy, good immune system and healthy teeth.

rhabks. I should concentrate on those really more than quantity of food

Thanks.

would constant snacking be an option?

we were having the exact same problem with dd, we still do in that she never eats more than a mouthful or 2 of a meal but we've been giving her a constant stream of tasty, healthy snacks throughout the day and she's gone from having maybe 3 things a day in her food diary to having a whole page full of stuff every day. she's a grazer and we found starving her until mealtimes didn't make her eat any more in volume so we simply allow her to graze

thearmadillo i had the same problem with dd1 now 5, she only weighs 2st 4lb and food was always a battle, after a struggle to be taken seriously with our "lovely" hv we were reffered to the hospital. constipation was a big factor in her eating habits which led to her having sore tummys and then not wanting to eat, she was put on a short course of laxatives and this seemed to sort her little body out for her she is still a picky eater, but a healthy one so i dont worry, as someone else mentioned a hungry child will eat.

sorry FOTM didn't mean to make you feel bad It was my fault for opening it (didn't think it would affect me stupidly).

WE've found by not restricting food to mealtimes he can eat better. So he's allowed food when he asks for it and then has mealtimes with everyone else as well. It took me a long time to realise restricting food reinforced it being 'bad'.

I wish I'd found mn when he was at his worst.

If ds isn't with me I get a full report of what he has eaten daily which helps. You're right that seeing it all written down makes it seem more.

Thanks for the tips. It helps to know I'm not the only one. At least now we have developed an interest in food, even if it isn't in eating it

I swear its karma - me looking at parents having problems before ds and thinking 'honestly they just need to make them eat' Oh how I have learned.

I probably should have explained better. Ds was/is food phobic. He used to starve himself because he was terrified of food and anything associated with it. WE have got over the actual being terrified of having it around him but we still have some problems actually getting him to eat it (though this is improving steadily). The constipation/swollen stomach he has basically had since he had colic as a baby, but it got worse at about 9 months and that is when he started refusing to eat.

I am grateful for people responding and offering helpful advice, but because ds used to go without food or milk for several days at a time regularly in the past the phrase 'no child will starve themselves' stresses me out. THat is my problem and I am sorry.

{{{{hugs}}}}} armadillo

we've also been at the starving herself stage, luckily she always drank breasmilk and was happy to drink juice after she weaned but she could go days with hardly any solid food at all.

she gained no weight at all from when she was 12 months until she was 22 months when we discovered she was wheat intolerant. we cut out wheat and suddenly she had an appetite (not much of one but still!)

It's stressful isn't it

We tried cutting out foods from ds diet (When we weren't getting help from the dr ) but we took him off a few months later and it didn't make much difference.

Hope this paed is good. Funnily enough new dr came along (after we had seen all the others in the practice) and we immediately got a referral.

that must have been worrying the not putting on weight. Ds didn't put on much for ages but it was still something.

no child who is not food phobic/terrified of food/terrified of anything assosiated with it/slowly getting over it but with swollen stomoch/onstipation problems will starve themselves

did not know that other part of your sons history (infact have never really heard of it before) so sorry if i upset in any way, was hoping that i could add a bit of a "light at the end of the tunnel" feel.

yeah watched htt and picked up some useful tips. That's where we got the idea of no pressure to actually eat the food, just basing it around exploring food. It really helped. HV was good, but had never come across a child so extreme before.

I love Tanya Byron

sorry it wasn't you. Just had a lot of criticism in RL and it makes me overly sensitive.

Thanks for helping it is always good

Armadillo - I was going to type the helpful 'no child....' until I read your last post! Knowing your ds's history and re-reading what he ate today, it sounds like he's doing really well! Lots of drinks and milk wil keep him going - the rest is a bonus. Must be incredibly stressful but they definitely can survive on thin air. Ds1 wasn't food phobic, but certainly had 'issues' with food and ate hardly anything until he was about 4. He was very skinny - just bones really, but very lively and energetic. He eats lots more now and really seems to have got through finding meal times/eating stressful. He's still on the skinny side but that's just his build.

Fingers crossed your ds continues to eat more and more as he gets older, but sounds like he's doing well!

embaressingly i didn't notice for a long time

at 14 month the doc at her check up said she was slightly underweight but that as she was bf that was perfectly normal and when she was 18 months i had ds so was a bit wrapped up in all that and sleep deprived, i knew she was thin but both dp and i are too and she was growing upwards so i just didn't notice she had stopped gaining.

i weighed her and ds one day when i was at my parents house and she and my 4 month old were only a kg in the differance i almost threw up whe i looked at her and realised how much i'd been missing

thanks dotty ITs amazing the progress he has made when I compare now to a year ago.

PT I didn;t notice how skinny ds was for ages cos his swollen tummy means he looks really chubby It was only when he farted loads and it went flat for a few minutes I was
I think when you live with it and it creeps up gradually you don't notice it much and once they get over a yr old you don't tend to get them weighed much.

lol, dd has a tubby tum too. we joke that she looks like one of those starving african children on tv but it's not really that far from the truth

for what it's worht it really does sound like you've made amazing progress with him, being interested in food really is a major step to enjoying to eat it

thanks. It was great. I have to bite my tongue when in a rush to prepare food nad he wants to help though - 'yes darling lovely, oh you dropped my last egg on the floor and I can't change the recipe now, nevermind'.

we used to joke about the starving african children thing as well.

pmsl, we do that too....

'oh yes dear the flour all over the kitchen is very helpful, oh no, i think we might have enough water now.... oh, oh dear, well never mind it'll just be a bit gloopier than normal pizza dough' (at this point i normally have to run out of the room to scream a little )