HELP! Toddler won't eat, I can see his hip and rib bones!!!

I just don't know what happened. DS has always been a wee GUTS, he ate everything and anything. Recently he is turning up his nose at almost everything, even stuff he loved. He is hardly eating anything these days, and this morning I've noticed for the first time his wee hip bones, I have noticed his protruding spine and ribs a while ago. At his 18 month check up, the MCHN said the appetite at around 18 months decreases by a lot. He is getting 4 new teeth ATM, 2 being his eye teeth. What do I do?????? Any help would be most appreciated :)

At the moment, he will eat his yogurt, a cheese stick, bread and little bit of weetbix with fruit and some banana. But so little of each that it almost just makes up one full meal of what he used to eat :(

keep offering him food, if he eats he eats if he doesnt he doesnt.
DD2 just got over this phase! while she doesnt eat like she used to, she's doing alot better.
we also started giving her toddler formula instead of cows milk just so she was getting some form of nutrients itms?
hope he gets over it soon xxx

Sounds like my little man he goes through stages, try not to stress yourself and him over it because you cant force him to eat trust me ive tried, (my little man will start gagging.) We live on bread here too!
Only advise I could give that has helped is let him eat when he wants to when he wants to. The struggle at meal times can be to much so let him snack through the day all day its the only way I have managed to keep weight on my cherub. Dont get me wrong I sit him down every breakfast/dinner no distractions and offer a full meal but he just eats the bread and gags on everything else. I do believe its very common of the age and will pass. If your worried he's malnourished the doctor can order blood tests to check, which we did and all his levels were fine just shows its the age and his little body can cope.
Boys!!!!!:wall:

Skybie thanks sweets! Cam's gone off milk a while ago, it was his last bed time bottle but he just started to push it away. I wonder if he could get into the toddler formula? hmmm, will try it.

Mummabee, I've been giving him snacks all day long but then he won't eat lunch or dinner. The only sit down meal he's sort of OK with is brekkie. I also bought him liquid vitamins which he hates the taste of, might try the chewable ones. I also got him the omega3 fish oil chewable capsules but sometimes he just spits it out after a few seconds. Little turdie! Boys!!!!! :wall::wall::wall:

Will he drink a bit of juice? Ds is going through a stage too, he basically lives of vegemite bread and cheese (thankfully tho he is still into his fruit too) and I was worried about his vitamin intake so I started mixing a liquid multivit with a bit of applejuice. I don't know of you have heard of "nudie" but they make an apple juice that is only apples and nothing else (sugar and preserve free, only the juice of 20 apples in a carton!) I squirt his vitamin in with that. I wasn't keen on getting him the chewable ones because apparently they are alot like lollies and I didn't want him nagging me for "lollies" all day and having a tanty when I only say one XP

My ds is doing this. Being a fussy so n so.
Just keep offering it n he will eat

yup Connor is the same.....grazes all day but no longer will sit for a proper meal. I just go with the flow and let him graze....we cal it free ranging here! I just offer what he will eat as well as other stuff...sometimes he will take the other stuff as well and sometimes I am lucky to get a couple of mouthfulls of weetbix into him before he is wanting to be off and into the day.....as they say This too shall pass....I hope!!

Helle, that's a great idea hun! I will try mixing the liquid vitamin with the apple juice. I've had the nudie juices before they are yummy :) BTW, where is that baby of yours???? lol. Thanks hunni and GL with your birth!

Thanks BeautifulMadness and Mel, I do keep offering food all day long and he is definitely a grazer now! I follow him with the food (baaaaaad thing to get into I know :redface:) and when he's distracted he eats more. Today he wasn't too bad but that's because I was trying a new tactic....I starved him a bit more between meals :o

DS is like this too, but has only just gotten better. He's still picky, but will actually try other things now (not a full meal, but will nibble and graze as well)
I found that once he saw that mummy and daddy were eating it, it must be ok so he'd start eating it.

Like helle, my DS lives off vegemite bread (breakfast and lunch) but still loves his apples, chippies, chicken nuggets and cheese - a vast improvement on a couple months ago when all he would eat were hot chips (and that's literally it!)

Just wanted to put my experience out there for you xx


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Thanks for sharing your DS's eating habits DarkDreamer! Wow, hot chips only! I guess if he was eating one veggie only, potato is a good one :) Veggie bread sounds alright, at least he's getting his B vitamins into him! Hopefully my wee man will improve with his eating soon...FX crossed!

The food thing can be so frustrating! Having said that, I think that we tend to put our adult expectations onto what/when/how much they should be eating. If he's teething, it's possible that his mouth is sore, so that might be contributing to the lack of interest. I'm a big believer in offering healthy foods whenever they want, and trusting their bodies to control what/when they put things in their mouths, because for most kids, they're not going to starve themselves. My DS2 (19m) seems to go for days where he eats virtually nothing, then he'll have a couple of meals where he eats a huge amount, then back to virtually nothing. I'm lucky with the nutrition thing because he's still BFing multiple times a day, but that's often as much about comfort as well, as he's a big "separation anxiety" kid as well. My DS1 didn't like cows milk or bananas before he was about 2.5yrs, but he would gulp up a banana smoothie nearly everytime, so that might be a way to mix things up, rather than forking out for toddler formula.

It does pass, eventually!

My DD is also similar. Eats like a sparrow compared to DS who was an eating machine!

I've taken to getting her up and feeding her while she runs around me! It's like she doesn't realise she's eating a full meal!

DS 2 had a stage like this and also a un of sickness and ended up TINY. we put him on 'operation fatty'. added things to his food. we also gave him incremin which helped his appetitie.

some ideas to fortify food and make what they do eat count a bit more:
add milk powder to milk drinks
stir olive oil through pasta before adding sauce
smoothies were great -added yoghurt etc
things that were always a hit - schnitzel (as long as thete was something to dip it in - hummous a hit here), corn on the cob (still his only vegie), fish goujons
I also introduced supper after bath time - this is a hit with both my boys - i usually give them some cereal to 'graze on' some cut up banana maybe and an english muffin with honey and a drink of milk. its like an extra meal that they love