Help! Toddler refusing to eat

[Njbrookes]

I have a nearly 2 and a half yo son he was such a good eater when younger but the past year or so he has gone through stages of refusing to eat and losing weight. But the most recent stage has lasted months and I’m stuck on what to do.

This is his normal food routine.

We offer him breakfast that he can choose, his options are usually

• cereal (usually have multiple in)
• toast with butter or jam
• crumpets

He will eat one or two mouthfuls then leave the rest.

A morning snack again that he can choose usually

• fruit
• raisins
• crisps
• breadsticks

He usually chooses fruit he will have most of this.

Lunch again he chooses

• sandwich (different fillings)
• beans on toast
• spaghetti and toast
• chicken nuggets

And lots of other things again he will eat one or two mouthfuls then refuses to eat

Afternoon snack is usually the same as morning snack

Dinner he has whatever we are eating all homemade but will eat one or two mouthfuls say he’s full and refuses to eat

He’s losing weight not a lot but still losing weight, we’ve spoken to the health visitor before and they suggest removing all snacks which we did with no improvement, we’ve tried just giving him stuff rather than him choosing but he will just refuse altogether.

He goes to nursery two and a half days a week and they say he eats really well there sometimes even has seconds at lunch time.

I am totally stuck on what to do now we have tried everything we can think of and everyone just says it’s a faze and he will start eating again but this has been happening for months now and I don’t know what to do anymore.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated by a stress mum who is out of ideas 🤦🏼‍♀️

Is it the type of food? Mine would not have really eaten those breakfasts or lunches. They much prefer traditional ‘nursery food’ for lunch eg fish pie, cottage pie, veggie chilli and rice, pasta with tomato sauce and pine nuts. For breakfast scrambled eggs, scotch pancakes, fruit and yoghurt with nuts.

Is there a reason for the limited lunch choice that's heavily bread based? Would he eat things like veggies, fruit, pasta, rice at lunch?

We’ve tried lots of other things for lunch too like vegetables soup, pick and mix type lunch with hummus, vegetables sticks, chicken ect but he still refuses. We’ve got to be careful with some things due to him having an egg and dairy allergy which rules out a lot of different things.

Sorry I should have put some different examples up, we trie pasta with a tomato base, vegetables sticks with hummus, fruit ect but still refuses even though he will happily eat fruit and vegetables sticks if given as a snack. We’ve tried having him sat at the table, on the sofa and just putting the food on the side so he can keep going back to it with none of them improving his intake

If he has allergies he should be under a paediatric dietitian. Have they offered any advice?

He was discharged from both dietitian and the paediatrician as we no longer need regular appointments we can self refer again to go on the waiting list for an appointment so can only speak with the health visitor for advice at the moment until I’ve contacted the dietitian for another appointment