Sorry, another baby ds question from Starlight.

[StarlightMcKingsThree]

How do I make him eat?

I just realised (yeah I know) that he has hardly eaten anything for about 4 weeks. He'll have a few spoonfuls of porridge once or twice a day but only if we've poured half the contents of our sugar bowl in it. Everything else is refused or spat out. He's 18 months.

He's supposedly been referred to a paediatrician and I'll check that went through okay next week, but for the time being anyone got any ideas?

Today I mashed a teeny bit of carrot and hid it in his sugar porridge but he spotted it and then refused to eat at all.

He asks for milk by saying 'Ne' and waving his tommee tippee cup at me but no withholding of that will make him eat.

Any clues?

I'm bfing a couple of times a day but he has plenty of fridge milk.

I should probably syringe vits down his throat too perhaps? or I might be able to mix them with a teeny bit of porridge or put them in his milk?

Is he losing weight , with not eating or is he still getting enough from the milk at the moment .

You could mention to your health visitor , ( don't know weather your is any good or not ) , are they any supplement drinks that they could give to your child that has nutrients they might need , if he's not losing weight and short term maybe not an issue , but if continue long term he need more than just few mouthfuls and milk .
There usually mixed in milk anyway , or come as milky drinks that you can do half and half with as know people find them bit thick .

Please ignore if it's not relevant .

No idea about his weight but he doesn't appear to be getting thin. Still got chubby thighs. But he IS really unhappy and clearly finds pooing distressing.

Have taken him to GP about that to be told it's common, though got a referal to paed as I had a list of other things. All borderline though so referal might have got thrown out. Need to check.

It's probably best not to do the HV thing. Although current ones are probably lovely, they don't bring out the best in me due to the past.

I put a tiny bit of tomato sauce on his cup, by the spout. He spotted it swiped it off then threw his cup on the floor.

His nappies look okay, but his bowel movements are enough to leave me cautious about jabs for the time being.

He had a raging temp on NYE plus a nose bleed that was brown and went on forever.

I'm sure you will already have tried anything I can suggest. But here goes; when teething cold yogurt out of the fridge seemed to numb their gums and help?

It wasn't at the same stage as your ds. But weaning ds1 was really difficult - he wanted to be breastfed forever! I used to have to park his highchair in front of 'in the night garden'. His total focus was on the tv so I could get the spoon in his mouth.

Swapping ds2 from sma to cow and gate really helped his constipation when he was nearly 6 months. Would it be worth making the porridge with one of those milks?

Remember the teething nappies , the looses green stools you ever seen that contain that much acid it would take the skin off his bum . That his skin would bleed . Not a pretty site .
Nobody believed me until they witnessed it for themselves , kept telling me was bad nappy rash and that I need to change him more often , cause he was my only child . Made me feel like crap , didn't help that had issue with speech , coordination , basically got treat like the neurotic mother.
Me and my then hv didn't gel either , didn't tend to use the service much .

I know there some lovely ones out there , same as in any other dept in the nhs , there are good and bad , so never compare , but there good and bad in ever profession.

Frubes...been a life saver- get your older dc to put one in the mouth and maybe bubu will copy - its cold and tastes nice and reliving without having to put a utensil in the mouth.
I do think you might have a tooth impact situation - nowadays esp with a private dentist they use a whizzy pen to literally whiz it round teh mouth and hey presto - you get an xray!

What's your gut instinct, Star? Teething or sensory issues?

Like lesly i was going to suggest having your dc eat in front of him in an attempt that he might copy them?

It's so frustrating when your children won't eat, my dd1 has just gone off rice and some fruit in the last few weeks... And that alone is stressing me out!

Perhaps both Lougle.
The sensory thing is definitely there. I only recognise it because of posters on here as big DS doesn't have 'much' in the way of sensory issues.

He also has to have things 'just so', and things have to happen in the order he expects or he throws a tantrum of the century. He's also extremely musical. Has good pitch already. But very little language.

However, his communication skills appear to be fairly advanced.

So, I for the moment, I am diagnosising a very strong-willed baby with very clear preferences and significant sensory issues hitting the tantrum-twos early, not helped by his delayed language, and his extreme teething.

I should have been a paed..................

Thanks Sammy and Lesley. I'll give the frubes a go - good idea.

Well that's alright then, because he sounds great!!!

I just had to spend £50 on 7 pairs of knickers for DD3, following the £40 on socks and she only wears about 2 t-shirts in rotation because of sensory issues She's....highly strung.

Not in the slightest, zzzzz. She has at least 10 pairs of Hello Kitty knickers, all of which have been in the wash once, because she rips them off as soon as she puts them on.

She has 3 pairs of brand new, soft seam Hello Kitty trunk style pants that her Uncle bought her for Christmas. Her face lit up when she saw them. She asked to put them on straight away. As soon as they were around her waist, she was ripping them off. In fact, that day we had to go to A&E and get her head glued, and the major delay was the fight we had to get knickers on her.

She had a beautiful Peppa Pig dress and t-shirt. As soon as the dress was on she ripped it off - there was a mid-waist line of stitching which irritated her.

The only knickers she would wear were two pairs of washed out, faded hand-me-down knickers that were worn by DD1, then DD2 before DD3. Age 5-6 so that they weren't tight.

Anyway, since getting these new ones, she's worn knickers all day long . I think it must have been the gusset that annoyed her, because when she first tried them on she said 'they're so soft', then later she said 'and there's no line here', pointing to the front of her knickers.

Hmm...cod piece. I know what you mean. The ones she rejected were boxer style without cod piece. These, but Hello Kitty

The ones she accepted are These look similar in style, but 4x the price.

The girl has expensive taste