15 mo barely eats anything - no interest in food. PLEASE HELP

[beammeupscotty]

DGS is causing us all nervous breakdowns. my daughter is still bf as its also his dummy, but he just wont eat more than a few mouthfuls of food. He was doing well and putting on weight but has started with 5 teeth coming through including 3 molars and canines. his mouth is so bruised and swollen its like someone crawled in and beat his mouth up. This has been going on now for 2-3 months. He has around 5 spoons of rice pud for breakfast, 3-4 spoons of food for lunch and tea and about the same for supper (rice pud again). He has home cooked, jars, scrambled eggs etc. we try to bulk up the calories with butter, cream, cheese etc. The dietician has prescribed high cal milks and drinks which he refuses. (He was 4.5 lbs at birth) Not on chart yet and never has been. Can feed himself toast and peanut butter but few mouthfuls and cant be bothered. Gags when food is put into mouth and clamps shut after few spoonfuls. Tried calpol/ibuprofen/teething granules - none work. bf is only at night and for 2 daytime naps. Drinking is just as bad, only drinks dreamtime tea (not one single calorie Wont entertain milk/formula etc) . He will just only eat and drinks what he wants. He is just wasting away, nothing physically wrong with swallowing just wont eat - suppose its teeth as he was fine before, not brilliant but at least eating a reasonable amount. Has anyone else ever had such a terrible time with feeding and were ther any answers?

So sorry you have had no answers yet, but wanted to make sure you were not alone on te thread on New Year's Eve, with merriment elsewhere on MN.

May the New Year bring you hunger and appetite and taste! My DS is a fussy eater, too, and goes through periods of refusing food, so I know it is frustrating, but can't imagine how frustrating it must be to have it all the time.

By the way, we are just trying to keep DS as active as possible so he will be hungry.

well...he's not on the chart and never has been so i guess you need to look at the situation in terms of his history and not what is 'normal'....He was eating better and putting on weight, so I am sure he will again. You say he was 'fine before, not brilliant but eating a reasonable amount' - have faith that he will get this back.

Is he really 'wasting away' - is he actually losing weight or just not putting it on?

Could you add some protein powder to the rice, or 'beef up' his other meals with same? There's not much nutrition in rice pud alone. Peanut butter is hard for small children to eat because it sticks to their mouths and causes gagging. Eggs sound good. I found with teethers that frozen peas went down well, same with high cal ice cream, despite the sugariness, and I could slip nutritional supplements into a high calorie milkshake. When it comes to toast and bread, whole grain breads have more nutrition than white. Have you tried chocolate milk or any other flavour? Does he have any snacks between meals? How much fresh air and exercise is he getting, and does he sleep through the night?

Sounds a lot like my ds2, who is 19 months. We have tried literally everything- different foods, different textures, different times for meals, only giving him food in quiet locations as he is easily distracted.

It is a nightmare. He is 9.2kg so only just on the charts for his age and we have literally run out of ideas. If we just leave him to get on with it himself he goes days without eating/drinking any significant amounts and can easily lose 300-400g.

If we never tried to feed him, he would be the happiest boy around and he is soooo active, but he just doesn't eat more than 3-4 mouthfuls of food without a lot of fuss.

I therefore completely empathise with you.

What about light chicken soups or pasta with loive oil or butter? DD was/ is a v fussy eater and she craved light snacks, bananas with avacado mashed in used to up her calories. Will he take a spoonful of vitamin?

It is awful I know what you are going through. How is his sleeping/ exercise?

Oh and we always used to feed DD in front of a tv programme to distract her, I know some would frown on this but I just wanted her to eat as much a poss so I did everything I could...

BooHooo, we've resorted to that too. Along with letting him play with my mobile phone, endless toys, car keys, anything to distract him . It is easy for others to judge about things like this if they haven't actually been in the sitation of being desparate to get your child to eat something.

I did the tv thing and the no tv thing, whatever worked. Pasta in different shapes appealed to one particular DC, and some liked the different colours too. Pasta with alfredo sauce was a hit for a while. One of mine would also eat tinned fruit (mandarin oranges in heavy syrup). I added powdered nutritional supplements to everything I could.

Thank you all so much for you support. Have been working past 2 days so now picking up helpful replies. We will be trying all the things you suggest (havent tried avocados yet and will look into protein powder with dietician). Not weighed recently but doesnt seem to be losing weight but my daughter dreads HV weighing in sessions. He is under paeds because of difficult birth, low weight 'failure to thrive'etc. but we're sure he would be catching up now if only he would eat. He says 'agen' if he wants another spoonful so we know its just because he doesn't want something. Think his tummy the size of a peanut. If we push food and drink he'll gag and bring it up again. I do distract him by making igglepiggle feed makka-pakka from the same bowl and he laughs like crazy, thats when my daughter shoves a spoon of food down. He gags then chews away and swallows it fine - but theres only so much distraction he will take - TV doesnt do it!!
Tried choc milk, ice cream, pasta,bananas, etc no luck. Uns.A.Mum Does it ever end?? He is such a happy baby but rubbish sleeper. Perhaps he is too tired to eat. Smiles all the time, so can sneak food in then. We give abidec every night (hates it) calpol/ibuprofen when nec. (hates it) IQ fish oil (loves it!) and no doesn't love fish (tolerates few spoons). Will def try to get protein powder. might get away with it if tasteless but he can detect meds sneaked into food. Would feed him big mac if he'd eat it. Have to laugh at all this 'dont overfeed babies' malarky. Thanks again

Oh, I know the feeling of I'll feed him whatever, so long as he eats something.... This is so different to my attitude with ds1, where he didn't even taste chocolate till he was over 3 yo.

If your DGS is under the care of a paed, you may want to suggest to your daughter that she skips the HV weighing-in sessions. My paed actually advised me not to go as he was getting weighed regularly at her clinic anyway. Official WHO advice is not to weigh babies older than a year more regularly than once every 3 months anyway because weight gain slows down significantly after this time.

The other thing to try is a calorie supplement called duocal. This is a completely tasteless supplement that you can add into any liquid/semi-liquid food. The dietician should be able to give more info.

Also, have you compared his weight gain on the new breastfed baby charts rather than the old charts? I downloaded these (as ds2 was bf till 13 months) and found that he was actually almost on the 9th centile on those (he was born on the 9th centile), whereas on the old charts he is between the 0.4th and the 2nd. I'll see if I can find the link again for the charts.

Link for the bf baby charts here:
www.rcpch.ac.uk/Research/UK-WHO-Growth-Charts

HTH

Don't worry about judgement from everyone; so many children seem to have this problem. I can't understand why they might not be interested in food, as it's supposed to be one of the main drives. Hah.

I find that DS has to get used to the idea of food or he won't eat, so bringing him into the kitchen from playing, straight to the table, is a no-no, as he's not psychologically prepared. I try to prepare food in front of him, eat with him, etc. It still doesn't work sometimes, and although his problem is nowhere near as severe as some of the ones talked about here, I understand a bit of your frustration, ladies, and you have my sympathy.

Thank you so much UAM we will ring the dietician tomorrow to ask about duocal (hope its different from that thick gloopy stuff he already has which he hates) but if its tasteless it can go into rice pud. Also def the protein powder. The bf baby chart will be pored over tomorrow when I go to see DD and DGS she has mentioned this but none of the HVs seem to listen. Little red book will come out! Shes always said if he had been born at normal weight (not 4.5 lbs) he would be on bottom line of chart.Managed 5-6 teaspoons of home made cottage pie today, distracted by Alfie Bear dancing on the sofa, and few crumbs of choc biscuit. He produces loads of saliva with these teeth coming through perhaps its sitting in his tummy making him feel sick. I know snotty/coughy babies swallow loads of mucus as they often vomit it when coughing and its this horrible mucusy mess, and they go off food. I work for NHSD so get lots of kids to assess and loads of mums say this. Didn't think it possible to get so neurotic over a child's eating but its helpful to know we can get advice on MN and also others in the same boat. cheers

It's very reassuring to read about other people whose toddlers don't eat much either.

DS isn't a big eater normally, especially if he's teething or has a cold. I've found that 2 things can help...

1. Sitting him down with a child his own age who is a good eater. He has a few friends who will wolf down any morsel put in front of them, plus more, and I find he will follow their example and eat more than normal. Peer pressure starts young, it seems!
2. Recently he has preferred to sit at the table with the family (he's 20 months) rather than in his high chair. If we all eat together he seems to eat more, especially if I leave him to get on with it with his own spoon and fork, or fingers (messy but effective).

Scotty 2-3 months seems a long time to be suffering with tooth pain. Have you taken DGS to the dentist? He may have an infection that's making chewing painful, and if it can be sorted out he may start eating more.