20 Month old, not eating

iMax

My daughter is 20 months old & used to eat everything (devoured it), however in the last week, we're lucky if we get three spoonfulls of food into her mouth before she starts protesting -either food goes everywhere or she just wriggles & cries until we let her go off to do what she wants.

She's started taking more in her bottles to make up the difference I guess, but I don't think that's 100% healthy. We know she's teething as we're getting the cranky wakes in the night & also red cheeks etc, but if we give her say a piece of chocolate (not very often) she's no problem eating that...

My questions -

How long can this go on for?
Is she likely to do herself any permenant damage?
what can we do or give her, sto spark her appatite again ?


TIA

6th

Try teetha for the teething.

6th

Mine has gone through that a few times and we learnt to just let her find her own pace. They wont let themselves starve though I kow its worrying when a big eater goes off their food. At almost 3 this little one still has off phases but is generally very good.

Give it a week for her to get over the stress of what might appear to her as alot of pressure and I'm sure she get into her own routine.

If you still worry then offer little and often.

Davidth88

I read somewhere that toddlers do sometimes reduce their appitite drastically.

Our little one goes through stages where she stops eating for a day or so ( I wonder sometimes if she finds eating boring ).

I find that if I distract her then she eats almost absent mindingly

Bottom line I guess , she isn't going to starve herself , if you see weight loss then start to worry perhaps ?

( I am no expert remember )

foxinsocks

Toddlers appetites change all the time. Sometimes a sudden drop in appetite could be due to a low level viral bug in your child's tummy. Has there been any change in her toilet routine? If this is the case, then eventually it'll sort itself out. There was a 2 week bug going around here which caused very mild symptoms, but meant my 4 year old barely ate for 2 weeks.

Is your child still drinking plenty? Children generally wont starve themselves, but they can easily get dehydrated if they're a little under the weather, and off their food. They will eat treats though, sometimes no matter how bad they feel

Usually changes like this are just because they arent hungry, and when they need food, they'll start eating again. Don't try to force her to eat, as then it'll become an issue, and the problem will only get worse. Just offer her food as normal, and if she refuses, then let it go.

If she starts to lose weight, have a chat with your GP though.

iMax

Thanks for the advice folks, will tough it out (stressful this parenting lark) until the weekend before a trip to the doc.

tred

Davidth88 wrote:

I read somewhere that toddlers do sometimes reduce their appitite drastically.

Our little one goes through stages where she stops eating for a day or so ( I wonder sometimes if she finds eating boring ).

I find that if I distract her then she eats almost absent mindingly

Bottom line I guess , she isn't going to starve herself , if you see weight loss then start to worry perhaps ?

( I am no expert remember )

Same here with our lad. at times hes too busy to eat, but if we get him into the chair and say distract him wiht a toy or a book, and then he eats unknown to himself!

Davidth88

tred

That is exactly what we do ! ... it must look sort of comical , little one flicking through a book , us dancing around waiting for the right moment to get some food in her !

Do you find the first mouthful the hardest ? Then they settle down ?

If we could see ourselves eh !

run_Forrest_run

Our little one sometimes refuses to eat also but I think the important thing is not too force it into them as they will just associate food with conflict and tears then! They will feed when they are ready (easier said than done I know )

Maybe if you let them feed themselves and give them more control/interaction. We have found our little one will eat if she is in control of feeding herself...OK, the place is an utter mess after but at least she got some grub and it didn't involve kickin' and screaming

edengarden

Is she drinking cows milk? or follow on milk? I don't want to scare you but my little guy ended up in a bit of a circle - wouldn't eat, relied too much on milk (cows milk) and got very low on iron. Calcium prevents the absorbation of iron and therefore the follow on milk would be much better, also if they are lacking iron their appetite can suffer.

undecided

my little fella stil does this and hes 4!

At that age what I did (and still do) was leave a plate with a variety of fruit veg and meat chopped up in finger size portions and he will help himself as he plays ud be surprised how many times you will top up the plate. but don't put large amounts on the plate. probably not the best way to get them to eat their meals at mealtimes but at least you know they have the nutrients they need. I found it a great way to bring back foods they turn their nose up at at meals time ie its chopped dont recognise it!