My son won't eat

[genericusername789]

Hoping I can get some advice
My son is 17 months, he's usually a good eater never turns his nose up at anything but for the past week he's refusing to eat proper food. We all eat together usually and he just screams to be held the whole time we're eating.

He hasn't been himself recently with a cold and he's had a couple of bad nappies the past two days. No temp. I can't see any teeth coming through.

He's never been a great sleeper so can't really tell if there's any change there.

Any ideas, should I put it down to being under the weather or is this too long to go without eating properly?
He will eat veggie straw crisp things or an Ella fruit squeezy pouch but that's about it!
He's also drinking water fine but been off milk.

Have you tried giving him nurofen and anbesol liquid and then offering food?

It's always been the first thing I notice when DD is poorly, she's usually a really good eater but goes right off her food when she's under the weather.

There are lots of colds and other virus's going round at the moment.

I'd try him with a dose of calpol a couple of hours before a meal time. If he eats well then you know he is feeling discomfort somewhere near the calpol has helped reduce that. You can then try to narrow down the cause of the discomfort.

Thank you both for replying @Fallagain @HalfShrunkMoreToGo I hadn't thought about giving him calpol beforehand. He can be fine then as the food is in front of him he'll scream.

I'll try the calpol tomorrow and see if that makes any difference.

There's not much of him as it is so I'm just worried.

I'm not going to offer any alternatives tomorrow either because I've been doing that all week and may be making a rod for my own back. Fingers crossed tomorrow is better

How is he doing now?

Hi @Fallagain thanks for asking. He's teething! First set of molars are through at the sides but the inner teeth are cutting through. He's still off his food and had a meltdown at dinner again tonight but i managed to get him to eat a few mouthfuls from my plate. Hope they cut through quickly!

Oh poor thing. I hope he starts to feel better soon.

A bit of a BOGOF solution, we used to give DD still frozen peas no sweetcorn when she was teething, the coldness soothed her gums and she got some food in her. Another freezer one was to take a clean flannel, dampen it and chill for 20 mins in the freezer the. Let them chew on that.

Thanks both and thanks for the tips @HalfShrunkMoreToGo I'll give them a go