18 month old not eating

Washout

Hi guys,

I have an 18 month old he is eating a very minute amount of food for the last 3-4 days...she is struggling though as her back teeth are begining to cut through.

We did take her to the docs who said she was all ok. but my wife is well worried. as this is our first child i was wondering if this was normal behaviour for a child of this age to lose appetite during this teething phase.

advice appreciated

daiixi

Yes it is usual. Try different foods but try not to worry too much. Your child will not starve herself and will eat when she's hungry enough.

My parents swore by rubbing a bit of whisky on our gums and my cousins and friends have followed suit and have found that it's really soothing.

dubgirl

hi washout - this is completely normal both my children went completely off there food at different stages. Thing is they won't starve themselves if they were hungry they would eat, it won't do any harm at all. Especially if your baby is still on a formula feed they get a lot from that.

Washout

thanks guys,

my daughter is still breastfeeding at night which im not personally happy about but my wife thinks its cruel to try and wean her off completely especially now as she isnt eating...im trying to convince her to just let our daughter go cold turkey.

she drinks formula no problem during the day but at night before sleeping wont touch it and is used to falling asleep at the breast.

any advice on that one?

daiixi

It's a habit and any habit can be broken. It's completely up to your wife and yourself as to when you will wean your daughter. There was a show on tv about a month ago about mothers who have kept breastfeeding their kids for years - one girl was 9 and still breastfeeding!! I think that's extreme but 18months isn't too bad.

themadchef

on the first point about the "not eating" try not to lose sleep over it. Obviously all children behave differently but from my experience (2 kids 1 boy 2 years old yesterday and a 14mth old girl) toddlers can have very strange eating patterns. they can go for weeks with little or no appetite... practically pushing food into them and all of a sudden they want to eat the table as well! it's all to do with teething if you ask me.

on the breast feeding note.. FAIR PLAY TO HER!!! what a woman, i tried so hard to breast feed but just couldin't do it. so good for her. in some countries they dont stop until the kids are at least two. she must be a wonderful mum and as long as she is up for it there is no reason in my view to stop.

Crea

Washout - I find when my smallies are a bit under the weather allowing the to regress in relation to eating is a good idea. For example at 18 mths your daughter would be eating lumpy food but if she's cutting her back teeth it might be an idea to liquidise the food or give mashed banana and yougart (mine never refuse that!).
About the breastfeeding there can be a huge amount of guilt involved in stopping so I can see why your wife is holding on while your daughter is sick. It is a habit that can be broken but while your wife and daughter are happy with the situation then there is no reason to put pressure on to stop, also if you are nagging her to stop she may become more entrenched as she will want to stop when she wants to and not because she is being pressure to do it. She'll stop in her own time. Hats off to her.

deisemum

As a mother and childminder and former dental nurse I can assure you that it's normal for children to go off their food when they're teething. Just imagine how painful their gums are and offer soft food.

Having breastfed up to 15 months I'd strongly advise against going cold turkey. Whenever your wife is ready to drop the night feed it should be done gradually. She also needs to feel ready to stop. The WHO recommend breastfeeding upto 2 years.

Ickle Magoo

My son is cutting a back tooth & has been off his food for the past few days...it tends to work that way - if he is getting a front tooth then he goes off his bottles & if he is getting a back tooth he wants bottles & can't chew food.....

On the BF issue - I'm not sure why you aren't happy with your daughter breastfeeding? Is it the night feed or her age? As long as children are still drinking milk, they can happily b/f....you could suggest your wife cluster feeds before bedtime, ie gives several feeds in quick succession, to try and break the night feed cycle.....but if your daughter is not sleeping well due to teething & is hungry as she's regressed back to milk over solids - now may not be the best time....

I used to hold my son until he fell asleep & it was hard going for both of us to get him used to falling asleep from awake, by himself....but holding him became totally impractical when we found out we were expecting No2 & we had to nip it in the bud.....you could try the "No cry sleep solution" - I think there is lots of info on the web about it - or controlled crying is another method.....best of luck....:)

Washout

Thanks for the replys guys..

Its not that Im unhappy with the BF..Ive read the books..talked to other parents...I hope i havent portrayed myself as some cruel heartless father...but my concerns lie with the fact that It is used to make our daughter go to sleep as well. she sleeps with us and any attempt to move her to her cot results in one awake alert kid.

I did suggest that maybe it was time to stop
I have also suggested to my wife to try and keep our daughter awake for a while after a feed so she can learn to sleep on her own...is 18 months too young to try and break a habit like this?

but we do discuss things...we dont fight and i defintley dont try to be a forceful parent.

Gurgle

Washout wrote:

any attempt to move her to her cot results in one awake alert kid.

tbh, the longer you let that go the harder its going to be to break the habit.

Nothing wrong with leaving an awake alert kid alone in her room. Try leaving her with something to amuse her until she falls over. A book did the trick with both of mine. Its always amazed me how an awake alert kid can turn into an unconscious kid within 3 minutes.

Is the cot in your room?
If so, its probably time to move it.

Oh yeah, the foods nothing to worry about, just make sure she's getting plenty of fluids. (Probably time to knock the formula on the head too and just give her milk.)

6th

Hi everyone, I havent posted in here before today but am a dad to a lovely 21month old girl.

with regards to the eating my little one goes off food regularily and i put it down to the teeth all right. She is very healthy size so i dont worry, plus she will ask for num-nums if she wants anything anyway.

With the bf we didnt have a great time with that but she did get it for a while and then the pump was used for a bit. At 5.5 months ours went from her basket in our room to her cot in her own room and we've never looked back. I knew i had to be the strong one with regards to not having her in our room to much and never sleeping in with us. Having done 99% of the night feeds for the small time she needed them I am VERY LUCKY to be in a position to have a girl that sleeps from about 7.30pm til 8.30am - i found doing things early was the best way for us. Lets see if works when we move onto number 2!!