Ideas to encourage appetite suppressed child to eat

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DS11 is on medication for ADHD. One of the side effects is appetite suppression. Prior to taking the medication he was never a fan of breakfast anyway but always ate well at lunch and dinner. Now he won’t eat at all until dinner in the evening and even then he barely eats anything. He wants to continue with his medication as it really does help him but says eating makes him feel sick. Today he complained about feeling weak and I tried to get him to eat some toast or a pancake with chocolate spread and he refused both. I asked what he would really love to eat and he said “nothing”. he didn’t want to eat. At dinner he ate a few mouthfuls and that was it.

Has anyone been through this and managed to get their Dc eating again?

Oh I would love to hear some responses. It's the main thing that is stopping me from pursuing medication for DS. He's a scrap of a boy as it is!

Same here @PenguindreamsofDraco, DS has no fat to spare.

What time does he take the medication? Does it need to be taken on an empty stomach?

Hi porcupine, he has to take it before his breakfast in the morning.

Hmm, that does make it harder.

So, let me begin by saying I have no experience of ADHD or the meds. I do have experience of trying to up the calorie intake of 2 boys - one an underweight toddler with food allergies, the other a teen with Crohns disease.

You need to let go of a lot of ideas associated with healthy eating, although the foods themselves can be good food.

So, general ideas:

• high calorie is good
• snacking is good
• offer lots of variety in tastes and textures in the same meal, this promotes eating more
• increase carbs, decrease bulky intake of vegetables
• always pudding with dinner (yogurt is usually easy to eat if you're not hungry)

If evenings are best, then try two meals then. An early dinner and a late supper. Supper can be a hot chocolate (made with milk) and a piece of flapjack, it doesnt need to be a meal.

Does he medicate at weekends? If not, try and up calories then.

Ultimately he is old enough to understand that, for some people, eating isnt just about appetite. That even if he has no appetite he must eat a piece of toast (or whatever) for breakfast and some lunch and xxx calories for dinner - for his health. It is hard- I once spent 8 weeks on only amino acid shakes (about as nice as they sound) and I had to make myself drink 6 a day. Wasnt like eating at all, more like taking medicine.

Thank you so much @Porcupineintherough! This is so helpful. God call about two evening meals! I think that could work.

Good call

It's hard. Dc1 lost so much weight that we had to resort to super high calorie meals and smoothies. Dc1 now takes his meds literally right before he eats breakfast so not appetite suppressed until about 30mins later.

When we were watching his weight breakfast was usually porridge made with cream and some raisins chucked in. He is also partial to full fat yogurt and a banana if not overly hungry. The only meal I insist he eats breakfast. He knows if he wants to continue meds - he has to maintain his weight.

Lunch at school is usually some crackers and soreen bar.

Dinner - he ears dinner later than us around 7.30 as that's when he is hungry. His meds act over 12 hours. He has whatever family had reheated. If it's a bolognese or chilli I chuck some olive oil in and add some grated cheese to increase calories

Supper - he makes his own supper around 9ish of peanut butter sandwich and banana. He also has a smoothie or milkshake if he needs it.

We also have snack bags of nuts and dried fruit that he can take up to his room and nibble on. Nakd bars too

Thanks for responding @Hankunamatata. DS’ is on the 8 hour release meds so I guess that’s why he feels more able to eat at dinner time. Although it’s still not great amounts. He does want to go onto the 12 hour release though at his next review.

Ds started on the 8 hour at 7 yrs. We only moved to 12 hour because the 8hr one was only lasting about 6 hours and he needed to be able to do homework. Disadvantage for us was that he is at max dosage so when he moved to 12 hour one - it doesnt give as good control but we have found appetite suppression is much less. Getting ds to drink enough is another battle otherwise meds dont work.half as well and ds gets stomach pains

Yes homework is the reason DS wants to go up to the 12 hour. He is quite good at drinking water and apple juice at the minute so good to know that’s something to keep an eye on if he does change over.