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..
I can't add to all the wonderful dietary advice. I just wanted to give you a and tell you that between 22months and 4years i would only eat:
peanut butter
yogurt
grapes
green apples
plain white bread toast without crusts
cream crackers
My parents were worried sick. I continued to grow but was very pale and didn't gain weight for MONTHS at a time - i can still remember mum putting me on the scales every week and dad running his fingers down the knobbles of my spine to see if they were less prominent. I was only ever borderline anaemic, but wouldn't really eat things with a lot of iron in them anyway, so that was a battle with them trying to get iron into me and me always being on that line. They were worried sick, doctors told them to add butter, cream and oil to my foods (how do you add butter to apples? lol) which didn't really help. When i was 4 i suddenly got over it and began eating selectively but MUCH better.
Fast forward - it did me NO long-term harm. It didn't interfere with my development, growth or brain (let's assume the madness is genetic and not nutrition-related ). It was never a reflection on my mum - luckily i was the youngest of her 6 and she had already raised 5 good eaters and knew it wasn't her. I was too busy to eat, had a very weak appetite, and didn't want to waste valuable runnin-about time sitting chewing something.
I would agree that a trip to the doc to try to get him feeling more well would be a good idea, but don't beat yourself up about this or fear long-term horrors. SOme kids are just this way. My love-handles proudly indicate the extent to which i got over it - i'm a total foodie now! Hang in there hun
I still think you should take him to the dr. Just bite the bullet and go. You might feel worse if you hold off? Forget feeling like crap, it might help him feel better. Not having a go at you, okay? Just if his iron is low, it would be better that you discussed this with a professional. Don't ever be afraid of going to the dr, the worst they can say is there isn't anything to worry about, but don't feel silly or bad for going.
Can't remember if its been mentioned or not, but egg? Hard or soft boiled spooned straight out of the shell is a bit of a novelty if you take the top of the shell off.
Watermelon is a good choice for brekky, but there really isn't anything in it of nutritional value, aside from water. But if its that or nothing, then I guess it has to do.
Re not being happy with toast instead of biscuits, he will eat if he is hungry, as you say he may be filling up of milk. My Mum says hunger is the best chef.
Zander is quite a difficult eater as well, so we have learnt to be creative. His favourite lunch at the moment is dinosaur sandwiches - I got a cutter from Howards, if you want I can get one here for you. Or we have puzzle sandwiches, made with a star cookie cutter & the surrounds cut up too. Generally he has Nutella, it's not great but our pead suggested it as he needed the fat in his diet. Otherwise he may eat vegemite & cheese or fairy bread, yeah the 100s & 1000s aren't great but he's getting fat from the butter & also the bread. We've tried just about every type of bread & his favourite for the moment is soy & linseed, but that's likely to change next week, or even tomorrow.
If he will eat something then give it to him for every meal. Our pead said the same thing over & over is better than nothing. Zander's dinners are generally, carrots, corn & goujons (like chicken nuggets but sticks) or sausages. We might add cheese to this & sometimes mashed potato, never ever change the way I make mashed potato cos he won't touch it! Other than that, it's always the same.
Does he like pasta? Try some pasta with just grated cheese on the top. Zander will eat it if I give him a bowl of pasta & a bowl of grated cheese so he can add it in himself. Hmmmm smiley potatoes, you get them frozen at the supermarket.
Have you tried the party in his tummy thing? Didn't work for Zander, but I've heard it can be really good for some kids.
Its still pretty much the same in this house, i'm trying to feel less like a crap mother by putting the food on his table, and if he eats it, he eats it, at least I've made the effort.
I haven't made the trip to the GP yet - was feeling too guilty and too much like crap as a mum to bring him out in to the open!!!! i've been giving him his vitamins though - which he takes really well.
I've resorted to nasty mum tricks - i got him some apple/pear squishy juice type things that he absolutely loves - then I got him a rafferty's spinach, pea, apple mixture type thing - and sneaked that in - he thought it was the pear one.. lol... so he had a good sip of that last night - and then made a face, handed it back to me. Did the same thing tonight.. lol....
Its weird how he is so selective about the foods he will eat. At the moment he is off his weetbix and toast, just wants milk in the morning - and his juice. Then he will eat a little bit of fruit over the day - mostly just wants biscuits!! Its a huge struggle to get him to eat anything else, but bloody biscuits!! its doing my head in.. I feel like the worst mother in the world when I put him to bed at night and I hear his tummy growl, he is obviously hungry but wont' eat any of my food!!!
I might try a roll of luncheon meat or something - haven't tried that before. have tried pasta - no go, hates vegies at the moment, won't eat anything freezer type meal... seriously, I'm running out of food ideas!!!!!
I think I'll make up some of my fried rice tomorrow - he might eat that - it was usually the most successful meal... (albeit not the most healthiest - but its with olive oil so at least his hair will be shiny!!!)
mel,
you are NOT a crap mother you are doing amazing iv been reading this thread with interest coz my 2 year old nephew is a very very picky eater and i wanted to see if theres any tips i can pick up to give to my sis, iv just phoned her and im gona phone her back in a hour and ask if theres anything she does to help...i'l come back on then and let you all know what she says that can help.
Really you are not alone..my niece is 1 and eats great so its not a reflection on you.
take care hun
rach xxx
Most children go through a very fussy stage. Neither of my older girls at the moment tend to eat much of their dinner and its very frustrating and alarming at times. They will however eat cereal, fruit and yoghurt, not much help to you I'm afraid.
I do recommend the use of Incremin as a supplement. My mum used it for me when I was a toddler as all I would eat was yoghurt or cheese and it helped boost my iron levels. I've used it for my girls too and found huge improvements. It is an iron mixture with lysine, vitamins b1, b6 and b12 included. Its specifically for fussy eaters and actually tends to boost their appetites. It is sweet but has no added sugar. I sound like a commercial for it... apologies for that.
Have you been to the doctor yet? I'd be asking everyone for advice including your baby clinic nurse as they often have some real gems of ideas.
I had a thought last nigt when we were having dinner, Zander picked the pasta we had & whilst it took him forever to eat it, he enjoyed it The one he picked was called "soup mix" and they are tiny little stars, hearts, letters, circles, numbers etc. Zander was picking them up with his hands (they were plain for him) and was telling us what each shape was, I think he also enjoyed having something the same as us for dinner for once! Might be worth a try to see if you can get them?
BellyBelly Life Member - Love all your MCN friends
Jun 2004
The Festival State
3,008
Arimeh, i so relate to this. haven't noticed dark circles, but bilby doesn't eat much of anything, and NO meat at all.
Like on of the poster's kids, she is keen SOMETIMES on food in cute little packaging. Despite loving the Wiggles, will NOT eat the pots of fruits with wiggles on it though! but Rafferty's Garden vegies and fruit purees - this two year old will normally wolf down. Just started not being interested in those.
cheese and yogurt were winners for quite a while - now out of favour.
i can usually get a slice of bread, marg and vegemite into her.
the last four days, the only thing she has agreed to eating has been pita bread pocket cut into squares, with salmon dip! what tha . . . . ? and a few 8ths of apple from my friend when out in the park. once home, nah, wouldn't touch apple from me!
i saw a dietician who blamed me breastfeeding for her low iron levels!! he said the breastmilk made her body NOT absorb iron, or something to do with blaming breastmilk!!! I feel like WHATEVER is not going swimmingly about her health, breastfeeding gets the blame, no matter what it is. but i digress.
just a waffling on post to say I FEEL YOUR PAIN, IT"S SO FRUSTRATING!!!
i make all sorts of meals that get tossed on the floor by her, or eventually into the bin by me, it's such a waste!
but a GP i saw recently told me not to worry, she said if the skin tone is good, they look in proportion, then meh, it'll work out.
but the intense need for sleep and the dark circles you describe for A sound in a different ball park, i do think you need to get medical help there.
Good luck with finding a medical appointment on a Saturday, transport IS a real issue, especially with a nb as well.
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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.
). It was never a reflection on my mum - luckily i was the youngest of her 6 and she had already raised 5 good eaters and knew it wasn't her. I was too busy to eat, had a very weak appetite, and didn't want to waste valuable runnin-about time sitting chewing something.
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