13 month old not eating enough

[Mh94]

My 13 month old has always been breastfed. When he was born he was showing around the 75th percentile. Now he's just touching the 25th.im very worried about him. He doesn't seem interested in food. While he will take bites of things he won't eat enough. I'm currently trying to go 2 hours without any feeds so he has a chance to become hungry and hoping his appetite will increase. I'm finding myself having to distract him with the TV to get him to eat maybe 4 spoons. After that he will spit his food out.

Does anyone have any advice? It is reassuring to read about other parents going through this. It definitely does make me feel like I am not the only one.
But any tips would be great.

Thanks

I would give baby led weaning another look - they are supposed to smush it up/play with it and not eat a lot of it at first - they’re little explorers and it’s how they get familiar with things! It may take up to 15 exposures to a food before a child will accept it so just keep persevering! I know it can be demoralising when you spend lots of time preparing food for it to be played with but playing with it is the first step to a positive association. Trying to force food down may accidentally create negative associations and pressure. If he feels in control of the situation he is likely to be happier and eat more. I would offer food about 20 minutes before he would have a breastfeed. While the long term goal is to reduce the number of milk feeds I wouldn’t try and do that artificially at the moment if he isn’t eating much else as it may cause further weight loss. It may help to track milk feeds and solids for a while to get an idea of pattern and also you may realise he is eating more than you think! Lots of babies and toddlers enjoy dipping foods into different sauces. In terms of protein you could try eggs (boiled and sliced/ scrambled into a flat “pancake” and sliced). Sucking on strips of well done steak is often very popular too and will also give him some iron and a surprising amount of nutrients even if he doesn’t actually chew and swallow it. There’s a great website called “solid starts” with a directory of loads of foods and how to prepare them for a baby of each age.

Has the health visitor booked you in again? If not I would book another appointment in a month or so or go to the GP to be checked. Is he otherwise happy and well in himself?

I do have another HV appointment in 2 months time to review his weight.
Last night, I was at work for about 4 hours and he didn't eat anything at all while he was with his dad. By the time I got back he was too tired to eat anything and so he went straight to bed.

I will try again today. Hoping things will improve.

Does he drink from a cup?

I do have another HV appointment in 2 months time to review his weight.

Is she plotting his height when she does these reviews and is she recording them in your Red Book?

If he gets referred to a Paediatrician, they will want to see that both weight and height have been measured and plotted.

My son was like this. I stopped breastfeeding around now and cut down on milk feeds and it took a couple of months but he went from eating nothing to eating normally. I think he wasn't interested as he just loved milk! I was ready to stop BF but if you're not I would just cut down and stop night feeds gradually. I was broken by the the lack of sleep and being back at work so stopping night feeds did wonders for us both. To start with we did one bottle at night which DH did until I'd totally stopped BF.

Are you and baby dad tall? My babies have pretty much all been born on the 90th centile and then drop down to the 25th in the first year (some are age 20 plus now and still on the 25th :)) me and their dad are both short I just make very well nourished newborns so dont worry if he has just dropped to his natural centile :)

Well I'm 5ft 5 and dad is 5.9 so I don't think it's that tall tbh. If we're talking genetics we were both long but skinny babies.
My older son was in the same pattern. Started off at 75th percentile and now between 25 and 50.
For me, it's more about eating normal. If he was eating normal but still stayed at the weight he is, it's less worrying as you know he's getting his nutrients. It sounds from all the advice that's been given is to maybe drop the feeds. So I'm going to try and nurse him only when he's about to go for a nap. So once during the day.

HV is marking the weight/height but it's all online now. Nothings been marked in the red book per se. Must be all on his online records.

Hi,
Take a look at SR nutrition on Instagram. She is a child nutritionist and has a 13mo and a 4 yo herself. She always post so much helpful information on there about introducing solids, weaning and how her children are getting on, what they eat etc.

Just yesterday did a 'live' video, which should be on her page, about fussy eating. It has a lot of excellent tips which I think might help.

My boy is 13mo and used to LOVE breastfeeding. From about 8 months I've been reducing the breastfeeding and introducing milk in a tommie tippie instead. By 10 months the balance was swinging to solids (always offered solids before milk). By 11 months we got down to a morning breast feed, before bed and night wakes. The more I reduced breast feeding in the day, the less he woke at night. He also got more attached to a comforter rather than using boobs for comfort.

About 2 weeks ago I finally dropped the before bed feed, I don't think there was much left in my boobs and he now has a tommie tippie of milk after his bath.

Perhaps you could get him used to a cup/drink bottle. He may not be interested at first but if you use it too and keep offering it regularly it will hopefully become part of the routine.

Thank you for your suggestions.

Update: he's had a few spoons of porridge as well as few 'weetos' and a quarter of a banana. He's had a feed and down for a nap.
Progress so far!

I did initially try the milk in a cup but he takes a sip and then turns the cup upside down. He finds that funny but I do need to be consistent with this.

I did initially try the milk in a cup but he takes a sip and then turns the cup upside down. He finds that funny but I do need to be consistent with this

Neither of mine would ever accept cow's milk when I was BFing. They had a 2 week clear break from BFing before they'd even consider it.

OP, you sound like you are doing a great job! From reading your posts and as a parent of two, you need to embrace the mess. I was horrified by the mess DD1 made eating & drinking. Food everywhere, smushed up, thrown, tipping water & milk all over the table. I reacted quite badly & got cross or made a big fuss and DD1 became a fussy eater who worried about getting food on herself. I could kick myself as even now age 4, she gets upset if she spills food on her top & we are still quite fussy.

DD2, she goes wild (within limits, I draw the line at throwing). Makes a mess on the table to her hearts content & tips her cups upside down 🙄 it’s hideous. I hate it & can’t wait til she reaches the age of less mess 😂 BUT she’s a good eater, likes most food & is yet to shown signs of the same fussiness as big sis had by this age!

Today has been a lot better, thank the Lord.
So far he's had 1/2 a weetabix with milk and some fruit. And half a biscuit. He's down for a nap.

I've just really dragged out breakfast. So around 10/10.30am he's hungry enough to eat.
I must say, he is feeling himself so I think that's definitely helped.
He's also had his immunisations this morning but still positive with his eating.

How old would you say they grown out of the messy play? Out of curiosity?