12 month old not eating -losing weight

[MotherOfDragon20]

My 12 month old DD is generally a pretty good eater, she has her moments but eats a pretty decent well rounded diet. The issue seems to be everytime she is ill she completely losses her appetite refusing pretty much everything including milk and survives on sips of water for a few days now I understand this is pretty normally and I wouldn’t get to worried but she’s started nursery a month ago and has literally had back to back illnesses since, again I understand all normal but I’m very worried about the impact this is having on her diet. We seem to be in a cycle of illness- losses appetite- eats nothing- gets better- eating improves- 2 days later sick again and the cycle continues.

To give you an example yesterday she ate half a yoghurt, a handful of grated cheesy and 4 oz of milk this is typical of a sick day. She is drinking water with A LOT of encouragement but her nappies don’t seem wet enough. I weighed her last night and she has dropped centile.

Not really sure what to do, I've tried things like I've lollies and ice cream etc and she even refused that . Anyone have any ideas how I can get her to eat anything?

If she is not drinking enough you need to contact your HV or GP.
My 14 month old recently lost weight after being constantly ill. She will eat certain Ella’s pouches and cake though and she’s still bf. She also will drink (and this could be considered very bad parenting but at times I’m desperate) flat lemonade and orange juice.
I did have dietitian input for my eldest due to various eating issues and their attitude was give him whatever he will eat as the aim is to avoid tube feeding at all costs. So I’m fairly flexible on food when they are I’ll.

Just to check, has she actually lost weight or maintained her weight but gone down a centile on the growth chart? Is she walking yet? When they walk they often don't gain so much weight for a bit as their energy needs increase. I think you're right that it's entirely normal and the priority is to keep her hydrated with whatever she will have. It's frustrating though I agree!

How did you weigh her OP? Do you have a proper calibrated baby scales? I also found the older my daughter got her weight can fluctuate by 3/400 g a day.

Is she walking? Their appetite and caloric requirements drops when they hit about one as they just don’t grow as rapidly. With a toddler is often more helpful to look at what they’ve eaten over the course of a week rather than a day.

What’s her weight and length centile?

That being said it’s good you’re monitoring, please don’t get too stressed about it as they pick up on that and it has the adverse effect, same with too much pressure or encouragement. If anyone says force feed or distract with TV just to get food in please ignore them. Have you googled toddler portion guides? Often our portion ideas are a bit skewed.

Has she had a blood test? Might be worthwhile giving her a multi vit with iron as that can get low in toddlers, especially if not eating well and that can have a negative impact on appetite and behaviour so can be a bit of a viscous circle.

Personally I’ve found HV god awful with food advise best £150 I spent was a private consult with a paediatric dietitian

Would she have a smoothie? Could bulk it out with banana, peanut butter etc for added calories.

Just to answer a few questions she has dropped centile (from 91st to 50th) but also looks to me as if she has lost weight in the past few weeks, just looks thinner, although I don’t weigh her regularly so it’s difficult to know. She isn’t walking just yet although not far off it and a very active crawler! Tbh I generally wouldn’t be worried about a little weight loss and loss of appetite when unwell if I knew it was going to be short lived, my problem is she is constantly sick and constantly losing her appetite and thats unlikely to change as the winter comes in and she attends nursery.

I definitely don’t force feed or pressure her to eat (it really doesn’t work with her anyway) but I obviously am a bit concerned particularly about her fluid intact. When she is like this she really won’t have anything, not smoothies, squash, fruit juice, ice cream, ice lollies, not even chocolate buttons!! We’re ticking along at the minute but it’s just not really sustainable how little she is eating.

I'd see the GP. Having said that my DDls didn't eat any solid food except for a fee fruits for about two months around the 1 year mark. I tried to make up for it by breastfeeding more but maybe that made the problem worse by killing his appetite. Eventually he started having solids again. He's always been a poor eater though since then and is still struggling with weight gain.

I'd get it checked out. If nothing else then Just to reassure you that it's fine.

She might not have lost weight per se but has grown and thus thinned out and not necessarily gained. But she’s dropped 2 centiles so it’s probably worth digging a little deeper. What’s her length? If her length is 50th maybe she’s just coming down to where she’s meant to be?

Is she getting cold after cold? Could she have an upper respiratory tract infection? My daughter kept getting cold after cold and she got one of those and it lasted a long time, antibiotics cleared it in the end. GP might recommend a blood test to see how her immune system is, should also pick up any deficiencies.

Are there any foods she’ll eat when unwell? Still breastfeeding or having milk?

It’s worrying isn’t it, I’ve been there with my daughter xx

@MotherOfDragon20 I'm going into summer now (in NZ) but my daughter was 12 months at the start of winter here and she also got illness after illness and she lost 1.5kg. She has never been a good eater but the illnesses really took their toll. Once she was through them she did put the weight back on so do be reassured that it does come right but I know how worrying it is at the time. You may find as well that in spite of the illnesses her appetite may pick up too once she is walking. Good luck.

Thanks everyone for your replies, definitely some things to try!

@Namechangetimes100 so her length is at 75th last time she is measured, she certainly doesn’t look underweight but also not a lovely chubby thing anymore!

Yes it’s cold after cold among many other illnesses, since starting nursery 2 months ago she’s had Hand foot and mouth, chicken pox, vomiting bug, countless colds/coughs and also been very unwell with her 12 month vaccinations and now her molars are cutting so the poor thing really isn’t catching a break!

I’ve problem is she isn’t taking milk either, she goes on a complete “anything in my mouth strike”, I’ve had to feed her water with a syringe at times. Then she recovers for a few days and she eats loads.

We’ve had the first good day in a long time today and she has ate LOADS but I know it will be a few days and she will be ill again and go back on food/drink strike. It’s so frustrating particularly as she is a great eater normally, she’s not being fussy or difficult she just genuinely doesn’t want it!

If this pattern continues we’ll definitely have to see the doctor because eating 2 days out of every week really isn’t sustainable.