17 month not eating.

[Sham95]

Hi everyone, I am new to this so I’m not too sure whether I’ve done this right. I have a 17 month old DD. Her eating habits have become worse and worse since she has turned 1. She used to eat A LOT of food during the day, however as she’s growing older she doesn’t seem to eat much. The reason I am writing this now is because it’s becoming a concern for me now as she’s really picky with her foods these days. I try to give her a variety of foods and even her favourite foods but she has days where she hardly eats anything. She drinks milk fine and enjoys drinking lots of water, however the food is the concern as sometimes she will eat the bare minimum. Is this something I should be concerned about? And is there any advice you can give please? My wife is expecting in the next 10 weeks and she’s stressed with the pregnancy. So my main focus is always on my 17 month old. I would appreciate any advice.

Thank you in advance.

Hi, from my own personal experience I've always been told that a toddler will eat when they want to & as long as they're drinking enough liquids not be concerned. Maybe book a gp visit and explain to them your situation and hopefully they can put your mind at ease

Thanks for getting back to me! She just paid a visit to the hospital not long ago as she was a bit wheezy. However thankfully everything came back fine. They also said the same thing, as long as she is having enough liquids it’s nothing to be concerned about. I only joined MN as I thought the hospital had gave a generic answer 😅 but thank you for clarifying.

As far as I know, it's normal for them to be picky around that age. Is she attending at nursery? My 16 months old refuses to eat at home but eats a lot at nursery.
Maybe try to feed her in different places? Try to feed her outside, or maybe at baby/children clubs?
My girl loves to eat with other children (I guess that's why she eats at the nursery) or outside (she loves watching the cars come and go).

She is not attending nursery as of yet, however we are considering putting her into nursery at 2 years of age for 2-3 hours a day. For maybe 2-3 days a week. I have tried to feed her in different places but she just refuses to eat 😅

It's really really common for kids to go through a fussy phase around this age - all mine did and are now good eaters. They tend to pick up on your feelings so try not to get stressed, keep offering a variety of food and try to act as if you don't care if she eats it or not!

Really common behaviour around this age. All you can do is keep offering to a variety of different foods alongside maybe one “safe” food that she’s likely to eat.

Like others have said, it's really normal for them to be fussy at this age. Just serve the food and blithely ignore them whilst they eat and chat to your DW.

Try to look on what she eats over a week too rather than a day or a meal as this will take the pressure off. Toddlers are great at self regulation so she should eat more some days than others.

Milk can be a big factor at this age too. If she's on Toddler Milk it contains extra iron, which is an appetite suppressant.

Between 1 and 2 the recommended amount if full fat Cow's milk a day is 300 ml, so if she's having more, you might want to cut it back to encourage eating

I will definitely be taking this into consideration as I didn’t know they could feed off our energy. Thank you for your words and I will keep on trying without trying to get stressed 😂

It’s a bit difficult as I am a first-time parents so this is very new to me. My main focus is eating fine and sometimes I do feel overwhelmed if she doesn’t eat properly. Makes me wonder what am I doing wrong. You are right tho, as I have seen her eat really good on some days. However it’s the days where she doesn’t eat anything they’re the ones which have me worried. She’s currently on full fat milk and has been for a while now, she drinks 9oz full fat milk 3x a day. I will definitely take a look into that. Thank you i appreciate it 🙏🏽

@Sham95 that is way too much milk. I think that’s going to be the main issue as to why she doesn’t have much of an appetite! I would try for two smaller bottles instead.

It’s absolutely normal to have a picky phase. They suddenly realise that they don’t have to eat things if they don’t fancy it!

I do think that 3 x 9oz is too much milk though - that could be filling her up a lot. Is it in a bottle? If so I would stop the bottle and offer milk in an open cup or beaker. She will probably not be as interested in drinking that amount from a beaker.

Keep offering a wide range of foods regularly. Don’t stress if she doesn’t eat any of it, just try something else a bit later.

@Moonshine160 I didn’t know we could @ 😂😅 and do you think? As in the morning, she’ll have her milk, her weetabix and whatever else she wants. It’s just during the day where it becomes a concern for her eating habits, but then she will have milk at around 2pm and then one bottle before bed at around 8pm.

Ok so she should only be on 10 floz. I'd start by dropping the first bottle of the day. Maybe offer a cup of milk with breakfast instead of a bottle?

@Hazelnuttella I agree. She used to be a very good eater but then all of a sudden as she grew older she just stopped out of the blue. Yes she does have it in a bottle, and she normally tends to have water throughout in her sippy cup. The only thing I’m is if I stop giving her milk, she might stop having milk completely and loses interest in it. On the NHS website it states to try and give at least 12oz a day so I think I need to try bring it down a bit. Thank you for your advice.

I am thoroughly overwhelmed by all your messages. I can’t appreciate this enough, thank you very much for your advice everyone. I will take everything into consideration!

Being fussy is totally normal
for a toddler, so try to worry about it. How much milk does she drink? This may impact her appetite. Otherwise try to eat meals with her and model good eating without drawing attention to it. Keep meal times low pressure