I've posted a few threads about DS's food habits - mainly being that he doesn't want to eat anything...
its still continuing - but I think his health is suffering.. he is taking longer day naps than he was before - and today after a nap that went over three hours, about 40 minutes later was asking to go back to bed.... plus he is always tired in the evening and asking to be put to bed...
But the most worrying thing is - he has really dark circles under his eyes - and it would be because he won't eat meat.. I've tried everything!!!! He just will not eat it.. if its meat and I sneak it into his food, he will chew and spit it out....
I've tried fish fingers, chicken nuggets, rissoles, spag bog (doesn't like tomatoes), every type of meat cooked different ways and served different ways etc, sausage rolls, EVERYTHING...
I've got him on multi vitamins because I'm really worried about what the lack of meat is doing to his system... and I got desperate today (cos he looked like crap after his nap) that i got the tin of toddler formula out of the cupboard - he prob had about 80 ml before deciding it was yuck and doesn't want a bar of it anymore..
Just wondering if I should go to the GP or a dietician or a nutritionist.. or what!!! ARGhhh.. tis driving me mental.
Personally I would go to a dietician or paediatrician for help.
When Matilda had iron issues she had the dark circles under her eyes. She wasn't lethargic, but pretty darn cranky (really, when isn't she?) I used multivitamens and In-Liven. I would put it in chocolate rice milk because it was the only way I could get it in. I gave both multi and in-Liven for 3 months and saw a huge improvement.
Tough one, my DD isn't big on meat, but sounds like she is better than your poor boy at the moment.
I've been really Iron deficient and it makes you feel like crap, if you pull his lower eye lid down and it's white and not pink then he is probably deficient. ( I think that's how it works, my brain has gone out the window lately)
I was gonna suggest maccas cheeseburger for a while that was all the meat DD was eating.
Not sure what else to suggest, I actually got DD to eat Pate for a while, I know who would have thought, just on crackers, I called called it special paste. Maybe you could call it dog food or something, he might eat it if he gets on well with one of the dogs.
Def go the vitamins, there is a liquid iron suplement that you can get, a trip to the gp might be an idea and take it from there.
ETA maybe you could make smootie with the toddler formula, what ever his favourite flavour is.
Definitely get some help hun. make sure he is also getting enough vitamin C. get iron fortified cereals and breads and do what you can to get him to have some. Iron needs vit C to be absorbed properly so make sure he has them together. and plenty of DARK green veggies
Ali - i can't get him to eat vegies... I served him up nice vegies the other day, he just played with them then threw them over the floor...won't even eat vegemite sangas - just plain bread - so there goes his vitamin B...
Ange - yeah I don't think he is really happy
Laura - thank you, DH is going to check his eyes. Not sure how he would go with paste - he hated hommus.... I could try the smoothy though - would probably drink it with choc topping in it..
I mean he will eat certain things sporadically - like weetbix, toast, grapes, strawberries - and of course - biscuits, bread sticks, sultanas, cheese and yoghurt. But not very much of those things..
(OMG he is currently eating a very thin piece of watermelon - from lunch )
Lack of appetite is one of the signs of iron deficiency. I would be seeing your GP for an initial assessment (and to rule out any other health issues) and then I'd be asking for a referral to a good pediatric dietician. It may be that your son may never chose to eat meat in which case you need to learn how to tweak the diet appropriately. The other thing to check out his general tolerance of tastes and textures, apparently some children have sensory overload when it comes to certain sorts of mouth textures, and it often feeds into speech issues as well (sorry I can't recall the name of this particular issue but it's something you can ask about and if necc get him assessed with a speechie if you've exhausted all options and it's still a problem).
Good luck, I hope it's sorted out with something simple like a particular supplement and . It sounds like you're doing a wonderful job caring for him!
There are definately alternatives to meat for him, but its finding what he will eat.
Dried fruit like sultanas, apricots are good.
lentils
tofu
cereals that are fortified are good as well.
Matilda didn't eat well at all, she would eat little tiny bits throughout the day. I have no idea how she survived!! I made sure every meal had bites of iron in it. Matilda also has the milk allergy which caused her to be unable to absorb foods, so it seems that no matter what she ate she wouldn't have absorbed much!! Vit C helps absorb iron, and probiotics can help absorption as well ,which is why In-Liven is good.
I would even suggest taking him to a naturopath. They can usually help with finding out what is causing stuff with him its hard to figure things out isn't it?
Mel.. honey, as you know, im going through a very similar thing with Jesse. Lately he has gotten a little bit better, but he is very fussy. I think at the beginnning the reason he would only eat bare minimal was because he just wasnt hungry (after going so long without eating with his gastro). You know when you havent eaten anything for a while, the tiniest thing fills you up. For Jesse, what i found worked was labels. Unfortunately. Things like Wiggles yogurt and Wiggles biscuits (theyre actually pretty good ingredients wise - all natural).. giving him a smoothy in a special Mickey Mouse cup.. etc. Fruit.. he wont eat.. will only have in a smoothy.. or one of those Splats pureed fruit things because of the novelty of the packaging.. (similar to the yogurt.. he'll only eat it if he can feed himself but thats fine by me as long as hes eating). When it comes to dinner.. he hardly eats anything. Likes mash potato again because he can do it himself and its "fun". Wont touch vegies. Meat.. will eat very rarely. He wont eat lollies or chocolate.. wont touch maccas. But just by giving him what he'll eat (labels) has increased his appetite from nothing, to now eating things like toast and sandwiches (but only when i cut them into bit size pieces or cut things in different shapes to hes use to).
Like you i am giving him the vitamins though.
Sucken eyes can mean dehidration.. is he drinking enough? Whats his skin like?
Toddler formula is fine when theyre not eating.. as the vitamins in it are more important than the sugar theyre getting iykwim.
I think it may just be a stage but I would definately just see a doctor for piece of mind. Worse they can say is just feed him what he will eat.
Hugs Arimeh - that sounds awful and I know it must be worrying.... i dont really have any ideas for you aside from what ppl have suggested above...relating to meat an sure you have tried it but maybe cold cuts (chicken breast, ham etc) may be better for him? though if he wont do maccas... who knows!
personally i woudl go see you dr, it cant hurt and it may give you some ideas, a strategy to move fwd and at least some peace of mind - will also feel better to be doing something proactive about it. let us know how you go
I know the details for a very experienced dietician who specialises in vegetarian diets. She does consults over email as well. If this is his natural inclination she can tell you what foods he needs to have to make sure he gets what he needs. Let me know if you need it. I would recommend seeing a gp though for some blood tests to check for other thing and deficiencies as well. HTH
hi mel,
i would suggest taking to gp i think it sounds like an iron issue. you could maybe seek iron from other foods and maybe make the meal with him and maybe he might eat it then. we call most yucky stuff spiderman food or batman food and that works like beans are batman farty beans (greenbeans). As you know i have no eating issues here with DS
Oh Arimeh! Biggest from me. You sound like you are trying everything, and doing your absolute very best, so please don't think this is a reflection on you, because its not.
I would take him to a GP or paed. Maybe even trying acupuncture (my paed does it with what looks like a laser pointer!) or chiro. A nutritionist may be a good idea too, maybe they could give you a couple of different ideas to try as well. Just work through the list until you find something that works, but then again, DS may just 'decide' to eat something.
I don't think there is anything wrong with giving the toddler formula, the nutritional goodies in it will outweigh the 'downsides' of formula (for DS, I doubt there would be any atm). Bug has rather a lot of it, and I think she is going just fine.
Normal weetbix are very high in iron. I remember reading the nutritional panel and comparing them to 'iron enriched' farex, and child 'iron enriched' weet bix too, normal weetbix has the most iron. So if he'll eat weetbix, even if just a little bit, that is a great start. For something different, maybe try giving him the weetbix with juice instead of milk? Don't laugh, a girl I used to know couldn't have milk, so she would have juice on her cereals. At least that would help with the vitamin c too.
Another food you could try is the cold meats, oops, its already been suggested. Was going to say things like strass, or the smilie meat (hey, its a novelty thing!). May not be the best thing for him to eat, but it may be a start. Shaved chicken breast or shaved turkey breast is rather yummy.
Good luck, I hope you sort it soon.
Oh yeah. If he will eat a bit of icecream, you could try sprinkling some of the formula on it, if he won't drink it. Or try the smoothie option, or mix in a bit of yoghurt.
Hi Pentavite is a great thing for helping with picky eaters.. It has a small amount of Iron supplement in it.. Our Ds2 had an iron issue and we tried that for a while but he ended up on Ferro Liquid. It didn't make any difference to his iron levels unfortunatly but in the end he had another issue going on..
But for some reason even though his iron levels didn't go higher he did seem to pick up.. Not as sleepy and finally ate some more..
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Ok this is getting serious...
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