19 month old - won't eat meat or iron rich foods. Losing weight

[howdoyoulikethemweeds]

My 19-20 month old has had been through the wars recently - cold after cold and some mild illnesses such as hand, foot and mouth and bronchiolitis. Each time she is ill she barely eats and wants only breast milk or junk food. 2-3 weeks ago, she had (I think) bronchiolititis and her appetite, which was never big, really went down and is not recovering. She now won't eat any meat or any vegetables and I am really concerned, both about the calories she is consuming (I still breastfeed her, but even that seems to have gone down) and potential vitamin deficiencies - particularly iron.

I spoke to the health visitor about 6 weeks ago about how much breastmilk she was having and that she treats breast milk as her main food and food as an optional extra, and was told her diet seemed ok and to swap breastmilk for cows milk in a cup and basically that it would probably resolve itself slowly, but at the time she would eat fish, steak, and chicken so there was little concern about iron deficiency. Now she won't.

She has a cold again this week and I've offered her roast chicken, chicken soup, lamb, turkey meatballs, steak, chicken nuggets, fish fingers. She tried the roast chicken and spat it out and ate one bite of a chicken nugget today. The rest she refused to even try. She will eat a small amount of pasta in butter, plain rice, cheese, sometimes bread. She is generally happy to eat junk food like biscuits or chocolate. She sometimes tries food but spits it out rather than swallows it, she will also sometimes eat a novel food - such as cheerios this week, but then won't eat it if I offer it again.

I weighed her today and she is 10.2kg and was 9.25 at 1 year. Her stools have never really been consistently firm, but I always took this as being that she had so much breastmilk, she currently has a small amount of movicol each day as she had been stool withholding a bit (started that this week). Her development otherwise seems fine.

I tried to get a GP appointment last week and instead was booked in to a nurse, who couldn't offer any advice other than to weigh her weekly and wait until February for a blood test to see if she is anaemic.

I am really worried and would appreciate some advice.

Will she have drinks other than breast milk and water? If so you could try milk shake -with a load of fruit in it. You can also put an egg in it (I do that when my daughters are ill and not eating and I want to give them something nutritious).

Don’t worry about it! Toddlers are fickle and some days eat next to nothing then pack it in a few days later. If she’s still having milk and picking at food it’ll be fine

Not sure cows milk is the answer to anything but think perhaps start weaning her off the breast

She won't be hungry otherwise

Get her an multi vitamin with iron

I wouldn't overly worry as toddlers go through phases

Will she eat a muffin? I bake muffins with plenty of cheese and grated veg (can do carrots, courgette, spinach, anything really). Toddler doesn’t really differentiate them from other biscuit/cake type things and I feel better for her getting some veg in. They’re cheap too, and freeze well, so doesn’t matter too much if she only eats half and wanders off.

Given the illness I wouldn't be overly concerned by the weight. In 6 months they have gone from just over the 50th percentile to just under.

I would keep an eye on the food intake and weight but I wouldn't be overly fretting for the moment

How are the stools without movicol?
Has toddler diarrhoea been discussed? Signs are undigested food in the stools and going in the early morning. Things that can help is going dairy free as it might be an undiagnosed dairy allergy (try last unless other signs), stopping grapes and dried fruit and increasing fat content.

You might benefit from dietitian support, often HV can do the referral.

Yes I found her weight quite reassuring - when I look at photos from 2 month ago she looks significantly thinner comparitively, I'm not sure if she'd got a bit larger than 50% percentile as haven't weighed in the interim.

Without movicol they are semi solid I'd say. She has blueberry skins in her poo and sometimes grapes.

She ate two crackers with cream cheese, two tiny bits of chicken and maybe 7 pieces of penne pasta so far today. Better than yesterday.

you’ve not commented on PP comments about breastfeeding?

Seriously cut right down even if you don’t want to stop completely.

My DD is 20 months and stopped eating anything other than toast and yoghurts. I was so concerned.
So I dropped her morning bottle and she only gets a bottle at bed time now. She now eats a full breakfast and some lunch/tea whereas she wouldn’t before.

Don't get me wrong she’s still fussy and not a fan of a lot of things but her intake is much better since cutting down on milk as she’s now hungry enough to at least try things.

Our son was very poorly at a similar age with pneumonia and it took a while to get his eating back to normal. Beige is fine for a while as they get back to themselves. Meat can be hard to digest, so children often go off it is they have been a bit unwell. Same for veggies. With iron, children don't need huge amounts. It's all about working towards a range of food. Some great ideas on this thread especially giving vitamin c to help absorption. Orange juice and a boiled egg would be perfect or custard with some fruit. Also, cereals are fortified with vitamins so weetabix with warm milk, for example, is great to boost vitamins etc and still is beige!

We are a veggie family, so think a lot about iron, protein etc.You can still have an excellent diet without meat.

Ignore the posts about cutting down bf'ing. It's a nutritionally complete food source and it's great she's getting calories from that while not eating many other foods. It's also a huge comfort when she's sick. WHO advise is bf for at least 2 years while introducing complementary foods. The advise isn't to drop bf'ing to introduce those other foods. There is a book called my child won't eat by Carlos Gonzalez which is a helpful read and really takes the pressure off. You can always get a blood test to check iron levels as well. Good luck op.

I'm happy to slowly decrease the breast milk now we are weighing her regularly, around this age my eldest would have milk 2x per day which suited me fine. Not keen to replace breast milk with chocolate biscuits though which would be her choice.

Having read all the responses my current plan is to weigh weekly, continue offering normal meals, get her a better multi vitamin and hope it gradually improves. My husband wants to push for a blood test too.

In response to some of the suggestions, neither of my kids will eat savoury muffins or pastries, my eldest will eat chocolate chip muffins with spinach in but the toddler wouldn't. We don't generally do smoothies but can give that a go.

She won't eat eggs, weetabix or most cereals. She'll eat a few dry shreddies or cheerios. She does eat porridge or yogurt with oats in sometimes. She will eat a bit of toast, more likely to if there is something sweet on it - she has a very sweet tooth. Atm she won't eat peanut butter on toast, but hopefully will again soon.

She won't generally eat soups, although sometimes she will try them. She will sometimes try sauces but not eat them after a try. She used to eat chilli and then I made the mistake of changing the recipe (4 months ago) and she won't eat it now. Atm she won't even try red meat or beans, but hopefully she'll relax again in a bit, because she won't generally eat sauces can't give her lentils etc.

I'm hoping it's just fussiness and asserting control where she can so will try to chill.

Op I remember reading a great book by a Spanish paediatrician called ‘my child won’t eat’. The whole premise was about how little small children actually need to eat, it was quite a surprise. Especially if you’ve had one that eats well. Would she like to help you make something? Sometimes I find they eat things they wouldn’t this way. Or make use of the chocolate thing - fruits dipped in dark choc? You can get all kinds of great hidden veg recipes like brownies with chickpeas or avocados.

I think I got that book from a charity shop once and didn't get on with it. I have a book called 'getting the little blighters to eat' so will give that a reread. We've just made oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies which she is eating, added nuts, chia seeds, flax seeds and peanut butter. :)

If failing to grow ask for coeliac test

That was never in question.

Hi xx going through the same with my 19 M .. please tell me it gets better ? How’s your DD now ?

I do think she's still very young for all the food you're mentioning

DS was 3 when he started having proper meals really

Before that it was scrambled egg, apple sauce, peanut butter toast and blended spag bol

Maybe chunks are too much for her??

@Claire123e you might need to try an @ if you want to get the OP's attention