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2 weeks since MMR and 1 year old isn't eating the same. Very skinny

9 replies

Heybear23 · 14/06/2024 23:47

My son is nearly 14 months old. He was 4 weeks premature, he was on the 2nd percentile corrected when he was born and last I checked during is 10 to 12 month check up, he was nearly on the 50th percentile. My DS is tall and petite bless him.

He had his MMR vaccine on the 30th last month and since then, he hasn't been eating properly. He's been up and down really with food. He was drinking milk fine during the first week but recently it takes encouragement for him to drink. He's back on purrees too! I did baby led weaning but spoon feeding here and there and at the moment he won't touch his food. I'm so tired I've had a breakdown. He was already petite and now he looks so skinny. There's even been a rumour in my extended family that the reason my DS is "weak" is because all I feed him is fruits. Obviously, this is BS, I give him a balanced diet. Recently, ive been making his meals separate but still offering finger foods and our family meals to see if he would eat. 2 days ago he was finally asking for more rice when I fed him, and he enjoyed it. I thought he was back on track but the same rice he refused the next day. I'm currently making every puree food balanced and adding either nut butters, double cream, milk, bananas and other high calorie foods into them to make sure he gains weight. I grinded lentils and used rice flour to make him a purree today too and that's what he ate at lunch and dinner.

The entire day I'm just there encouraging him to take the first spoon of whatever I've made and sometimes he will open his mouth and finish it all and other times it's a struggle. I'm so exhausted.

Oh and as well as the MMR vaccine, he caught a cough and cold straight after and is also teething.

My question is, has anyone else had similar experiences? It's been over 2 weeks and normally when he's ill he takes a week to get back to normal. I also feel like forcing him or encouraging him to take bites makes him fearful of the high chair, his spoon or his bottle.

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Heybear23 · 14/06/2024 23:48

Ps. I did make a GP appointment. They confirmed the cough wasn't from a chest infection and tried to check his weight but my toddler is very sensitive and was too scared to stand on the scale. I have a health visitor appointment on Monday to check his weight

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Heybear23 · 14/06/2024 23:50

And when I mean he's thin, the doctor even mentioned that he looked skinny. His face looks a lot better since I've been calorie counting and making purrees with a lot of fats however.

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MasterOfCake · 14/06/2024 23:54

Sounds like our experience. It also coincided with DS starting nursery. He was sick for an entire month. He became so skinny that you could see his ribcage. I think it was a combination of the MMR making him unwell and catching every bug going at nursery.

It did eventually pass but it was a horrible time, and made my return to work very very difficult and left me feeling very guilty.

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Heybear23 · 14/06/2024 23:59

@MasterOfCake sorry you had to go through this as well. It's sooo stressful!! I can imagine having to go back to work mustve been difficult for you too. That's exactly the same with my DS. His ribcage is visible and his arms and shoulders are so thin. This howevermakes me feel so much better knowing that your toddler did eventually start eating again. thank you for your reply!

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Crumpleton · 15/06/2024 00:16

My DGC was exactly the same, had the jabs and was a bit upset for the first few days after, legs were really sore then around 8 days after they just wouldn't eat much at all, never been a problem at meal times pre injections but only took a few mouthfuls and refused their night time milk too.
Lasted around 4/5 days.
Now happily back to eating as before.

Tessiebeare · 15/06/2024 00:18

You say he has a cough and cold? Could it be covid and he’s lost his taste/ everything tastes funny?

Superscientist · 15/06/2024 09:05

The MMR can give symptoms on and off for 3 weeks. First recovery from the jab, around 10 days they can get measles symptoms and 2-3 weeks they can get mumps symptoms

If they have a bug on top of that it makes sense that they are struggling a bit more. My daughter came down with chicken pox on the day she had the MMR. She had the jab in the morning and had spots in the evening. She was miserable for 5-7 days. Had a few good days and was then a bit miserable with the rash around 10 days. When she had the preschool boosters she was miserable for 2-3 days after the MMR and then had the rash at 10 days and felt a bit sorry for herself then too. Neither time did she get the mumps symptoms

How is his height relative to his weight? Keeping the calories per spoon and trying to not but pressure on the food probably is the way to go. My daughter has pretty good weight gain but is a very poor eater and this is what we have to do at times - making sure there is a good glug of oil over pasta for example when she only will eat pasta. Although her weight is good she doesn't grow very quickly and is on the 1st percentile for height so we still need to make sure she has enough nutrition for growing when she drops to a half a meal a day. For us it's about monitoring and riding it out. She generally gains weight well for 3-4 months then it slows for the rest of the year resulting in her bouncing between two percentiles

Haynesy · 20/06/2024 09:40

Any update on how your little one is eating now OP? My son had his jabs last Wednesday (8 days ago) and is utterly miserable and won’t eat anything but yogurt and a few spoonfuls of weetabix. 😥

Heybear23 · 23/06/2024 09:10

@Haynesy hey!! Finally, he's doing a lot better and it's been a couple of days where he's been eating the same. He ate his breakfast, half slice of toast for lunch with other snacks (he did however used to have a full slice) and a good amount of dinner again. It did take id say near 3 weeks for him to get back to normal. Your little one will be fine soon, it will take long but they will be fine!! Around a week ago he started snacking again and eating more. I made purrees with a lot of fatty things in them such as pecan nuts grinded into a mixture of rice flour and milk, and put mangos in them for sweetness and that's what he was eating for a while until he got his appetite back. It helped him gain the weight back! If your little one has lost weight, I used 1oz of double cream in 6 Oz of whole milk every time he drank to get his weight back. Let me know if you have any more questions. Hope your little one starts eating better soon xx

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