18 month old - hardly eating

[firsttimemama5]

My little girl is nearly 18m and has never really enjoyed foods. We did everything by the “book”… literally when weaning, she was always funny with different textures. I just didn’t worry before 12m because milk was her main source of nutrition.

We had about 4 weeks of good eating, to now hardly eating. I have read so much on how much they are meant to eat/portion sizes etc.

We have tried sooo much! Majority of the time she will enjoy wheetabix in the morning which we add peanut butter & fruit too. Then during the day it is honestly so hit and miss. Fruit is a no go, unless it’s a banana and she will have a 1/4 of it! She will eat breadsticks and rice cakes, so mainly snacks.

I think it is sensory because she hesitates to touch stuff and often tries by licking food SLIGHTLY, then pulls her face most of the time.

We have tried involving her in cooking, sitting together at meal times, playing with foods …. We cook from scratch, we have tried frozen stuff! Everything!

She does still have milk before bed, but not during the day (unless on wheetabix).

Any positive advice would be great! Thanks so much x

First child? Pretty common. Does she breastfeed?

Yes first child. Common to not eat anything other than breakfast? That’s reassuring!
Nope she doesn’t BF x

Do you let her play and explore with food?

Ah ok. I think it’s more common with breastfed babies. Does she have much formula? If not I probably would talk to health visitor/GP.

Do you eat at the same time wirh her?

Does she have nursery or other friends she can meet up and eat with? They like to copy each other

mine can be similar and is the same age… it comes and goes… I had a lot of trial and error in finding the kind of dinners that he likes to eat, and even now he will randomly have a few days where he barely touches stuff. so no particular advice other than to say it’s definitely not just your daughter! my little one also enjoys going out for dinner and will try new foods there eg pasta from a kids menu. so basically just keep trying new things and figuring out what tends to work. And put multi vits in her bedtime milk so you don’t have to worry so much about that!

I'd try to work from what she does like and expand gently. She likes weetabix – what about porridge (add the same peanut butter and fruit) or another cereal? She likes breadsticks and rice cakes – what about a variety of crackers, maybe thin, quite crispy toast? What about things on the rice cakes or to dip breadsticks into?

Banana's unfortunately quite a unique fruit in terms of taste and texture! Bit of a stretch, but possibly roasted carrots and parsnips? Raw courgette is also a bit similar in texture, and a mild flavour. You could peel it if you think the green will put her off.

Does she seem to be growing and have plenty of energy?

Thank you, this is really helpful! Will definitely give anything a whirl at this point 🤣
Yeah she does not stop!!! She’s very, very active! Her weight is on the lower side but still 50th centile, so not underweight.
thanks so much for your help xx

One thing, she isn’t in nursery yet. She starts in September & I’m hoping this will really help!
We always eat at the same time as her, well who ever is with her. She just doesn’t seem interested. Even if she has a treat say, ice yogurt/cream she only eats so much and leaves it but she will explore stuff like that. Thank you ☺️

God I could have written this post. Mines almost 3 but has never expanded his diet much at all😭 same as yours, Weetabix in morning, won't have anything added though but will only take the banana ones. Bread sticks and Ritz crackers are a mainstay in my house. Won't eat bread. Chocolate chip brioche he will though😅 luckily he'll eat apples, pears and grapes and cucumber and raw pepper. That's it for fruit and veg 🫣 has completely stopped eating anything hot meal wise. I wish he'd eat peanut butter because at least there's good calories in that so at least your little girl is getting something. Really hope she starts getting more adventurous for you as she gets bigger. HV at this point would just say wait and see🙄

How long do we wait & see… when she’s 18 🤣
thank you for this! We are in it together!!
I don’t know where she gets all her energy from she never stops!!! & some days that’s living off a few breadsticks 🙈 xx

Believe me, the whole wait and see thing is really annoying when you're so worried that your child is going to starve. Mine saw a dietician at 18 months old to discuss his CMPA and even she said that basically toddlers are always fussy eaters so it's nothing to worry about yet😒 she didn't give me the time frame for when I could start worrying 😅 mine also runs around all day non stop so I know the complete stress of watching them burning calories that they haven't got to spare. My view on it is that all I can do is keep offering him other foods alongside what he will eat and if he does/doesn't eat it just don't make a big deal about it. Because sometimes it feels like if I've praised him for eating something he won't touch it again 😭 talk to your HV about it so it's at least logged down that you're concerned and obviously if your little one starts losing alot of weight then definitely bring it up again because I'd imagine that you'd get far more help if the child was losing weight. Solidarity, and I really hope she starts eating better for you soon🤞😊

Hello from someone with an 18 month old not eating anything lol. I can see that you posted this last summer... have you seen any improvement at all? I keep trying but she just picks the food up..looks at it and puts it down again. She will eat some snacks (of course) but no meals really, it's frustrating!