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?

No way - the elastic around her calves would finish her

A few weeks ago she assured me that she never wanted to go to gymnastics again. I was suspicious, as she completely loves it. Finally I dug out of her that the leotard I bought her in September was now tight under the armpits. New leotard, love for gymnastics restored. As long as she can wear it without knickers.

Anyyyywayyy...Star...How has eating gone today?

Ds will only eat sweet or salty, with sweet apparently being the most tolerable, particularly if your sense of smell or taste is disoriented in some way, by a disorder (such as ASD) or something more simple like having a cold or even teething I suspect.

Having a cold or anything which can cause your taste to become distorted can make food which is normally pleasant to taste unpleasant.

You can always bring baby Star around here and I will happily feed him chocolate buttons all day and play 'poo stinking feet' with him!

With ds, I found letting him 'control' food, helped getting him to eat as a toddler. Letting him feed himself and finger foods, letting him walk around eating, if he didn't want to sit still.

Hmmmm..Is he a carb fiend star?

Hi all. Sorry. Have been thinking about this before replying.

Not carbs. Not chocolate. Not calpol. Nothing. Most days.

BUT I have realised that every so often for no reason I can fathom, or have I registered before, he has a day of mass-eating. Usually at night on a DH's shift and usually stuff out of tins. Baked beans, rice pudding, soup.

Today he ate a few mouthfuls because I put his dinner on a proper breakable dinner plate and gave him a knife and fork. He copied Ds, who thankfully eats his dinner mostly with his hands (never thought I'd see it as positive). I also scattered some raisins on the carpet and he had fun finding them to eat .

He won't eat chocolate buttons claw. Though it is entirely possible given his wilfulness that he'd accept them from you, just not me.

Hmm...not carbs. But will eat rice pudding, which has carbs. The milk and sugar is a carrier, perhaps, or the texture?

Interesting that the three things you list, have a variety of texture within them. Baked beans - softish beans with lots of sauce around them; Rice pudding - rice in a milky sauce; Soup -is it a smooth soup or a textured soup? Even Porridge - oats surrounded in milky gloop.

In feeding clinics, they tend to do a 'picnic', so they just put random food objects all over a blanket then let the children 'play' with the idea that they will come across something that interests them.

Why do you think he eats when your DH is on shift? Does he offer anything he can get his hands on to pacify him (no criticism - it's fantastic!), and strike lucky? Or do you think your DS is too tired to put up a fight? Or something else?

I dunno lougle. Personally I don't think it is DH as such, just that late at night the house is quiet, I'm in bed and DH and baby Ds cuddle in front of the tv, where he gets spoonfed sugary things. It doesn't happen most nights but every now and then Ds will suddenly start gobbling and not stop. Then it is 4 or 5 days of a hunger strike.

Tbh, I'm confusing myself now. I probably ought to keep a diary and get DH to fill it too.

Well in that case it's a regression because he was eating fine up until 14 months-ish.

But. I did manage to get a good peep in his mouth when I tickle led him and he has tooth buds EVERYWHERE.

I guess I need to keep a diary for my own sanity. And try and wait it out/for the paed appointment.

He's miserable but he does appear healthy.

Dd's class has had an outbreak of chicken pox. So I'm watching for that too

Sigh, I sound neurotic.

He ate what I ate. Without teeth. Who knows how. He's my 3rd right?

Star

Chicken roast, sandwiches, apples, pies, peas, pasta, yoghurt, olives, smoked salmon, Chips he dipped in curry sauce.

You don't need teeth to eat - gums are very hard.

Sounds like teething Star, although im sure you didn't need me to tell you that!

Ooohhh...my ds1 seemed to get all his teeth in job lots too :( and quite late.
It can make them very miserable and put them off food.
Ds2 otoh just seemed to wake up with new teeth from 4 months old and just dribbled more! :)

Are you giving him any pain relief?
(Thinks back to dental pain I have experienced)