thread: she just wont eat!!

  1. #1
    Registered User

    Jan 2009
    pakenham, victoria
    3,660

    she just wont eat!!

    DD2 is going through a 'thing', she's refusing to eat!
    she'll eat yogurt for breaky lunch and dinner no worries,but thats about the extent of it.
    Yesterday she managed a piece of toast for breaky and a quarter of an apple, for the whole day!
    She doesnt snack, she tries to but i dont let her unless its fruit atm.
    What can i try? ive got her on toddler milk atm, she's such a weed i dont want her to loose any more weight, so im subbing her nap and night time bottles with the toddy milk instead of cows milk just so she's getting SOMETHING in her.
    gosh i cant even remember the last time she ate tea
    Help!

  2. #2

    May 2008
    Melbourne, Vic
    8,631

    Oh dear, no good! Its so stressful when they don't eat...

    A pediatric nutritionist told me once that it is completely normal for toddlers to go through "hungry" phases and then "not hungry" phases. They will eat and eat and eat anything and everything you put in front of them for a few weeks and then just stop, for a week or so or sometimes longer. Has it been going on long?

    Have you tried all the things she used to love for dinner? My kids have four dishes they eat buckets of every time I serve it - tuna pasta bake, , a chicken tomato casserole, spag bol and pumpkin risotto. If they're not eating, I dish up one of them to try and get some food into them.

    Hope she picks up again soon!

  3. #3
    Registered User
    Add Stevie on Facebook

    Apr 2009
    Sunshine Coast
    1,280

    I have no advice.. mine is doing the same sort of thing.. she will eat if you can figure out what she likes on THAT day
    Im scared she is going to fade away

    big hugs.. i hope this phase passes quickly for both of us

  4. #4
    Registered User

    Oct 2007
    Middle Victoria
    8,924

    Can you just have healthy food around and let her snack? My LO is much more of a grazer than a feast/famine eater.

    pita bread & dips
    vegie sticks & dips
    muffin pizzas

  5. #5
    2013 BellyBelly RAK Recipient.

    Apr 2006
    Winter is coming
    5,000

    My favorite trick is to cut up a few different fruits and give both kids a toothpick to eat it with. The toothpick brings novelty to the event, and sharing with the older sibling makes it a competition so they eat more. The other thing that works here is to help them make their own pizzas, either on pita bread or normal bread (works more for 4yo DS).

  6. #6
    Registered User

    Mar 2007
    Melbourne
    4,031

    Perhaps she is filling up on the Toddler milk?
    And yes, the toothpick trick worked a treat with my kids.
    DD is going through something similar at the moment, it's frustrating and like you I worry that she is not getting enough. She goes through eating everything stages and eating almost nothing stages.

    Friday is my lazy day, I dish up a cold plate, so it will have alot of different things on that the kids pick at. Like cold cold meats, chopped up raw carrot, cheese on biscuits, cherry tomatoes and hard boild eggs.
    Sometimes DD prefers the cheese grated.

    ETA: DD is a November 09 baby, she would rather carrot sticks she can dip into something like Hummus dip

  7. #7
    Registered User

    Oct 2008
    Victoria
    4,601

    I know how frustrating this can be, my Moo went through a phase of not eating and has just started eating 'normally' this week. It lasted a couple of weeks and it was really stressing me out! Looks like they are very close in age too so must be normal But yes he went from eating more than me to just nibbling at a sandwich for lunch and only eating yogurt at dinnertime, then he started refusing the yogurt. I never stopped offering, that whole 'my job to offer healthy food, his job to eat it' thing but he'd just push it away. Privately it was making me very anxious but I didn't let him see that. Then one night he picked up his fork and ate the whole bowl of pasta and has been eating ever since What is interesting is he's come out of this less picky, he's eating things that he would never touch before.

    Sorry I can't be of more help, hopefully it's just a phase

    Just read Heather's post - yes Moo ate a bowl of grated cheese one night and that was it all day!

  8. #8
    Registered User

    Jan 2009
    pakenham, victoria
    3,660

    Its been going on for about 3 weeks and ive only started the toddler milk today. She onlt has 2 bottles a day, one before her arvo sleep and one at night before bed.
    WillGive more fingers foods a go and toothpicks, usually if I leave out food she has one or two bites then leaves it'll
    she's too young for the dice trick yet, works a treat on DD1 though

  9. #9
    Registered User
    Add Stevie on Facebook

    Apr 2009
    Sunshine Coast
    1,280

    great advice.. i might have to try the tooth pick thing..

  10. #10
    Registered User

    May 2008
    ...where jumping on the bed is mandatory!
    2,225

    if DD1 is having a no food phase i will make fruit sticks or even veggie sticks, just stuff on a skewer. that goes down a treat.

    i dont know what else to say though, she wont starve to death, but if dd1 was doing this to such a degree id worry as she is already so skinny, but i dont know what id do. does she help you when your cooking, dd will eat more veggies and stuff if she is helping me prepare dinner/lunch, maybe try that??

    just a thought, has she got painful teeth or throat, something thats putting her off eating?

    just thought of this game i have played a few times with dd but i think yours might be a tad too young? if she hasnt touched her dinner we play a guessing game, take in in turns and put food in the other persons mouth and they have to guess what it was. she can eat a whole dinner this way.

  11. #11
    Registered User

    Nov 2008
    Perth, WA
    2,315

    DS goes through phases too. He seems to be enjoying the fact that he has some control over what/when/whether/how he wants to eat now and sometimes he refuses just for the sake of it iykwim. For the past two days the fork has been a novelty, so anything that could go on a fork was a winner. Before that he went a week where the only fruit he ate was whatever I could hide in his weetbix, put in his yoghurt or make into a cinnamon fruit loaf. We just kept offering it at every meal, a wide variety but only a real small amount at a time - I've heard putting lots of food in front of a toddler can be overwhelming. Have you asked her what she wants? Maybe you could negotiate with her a bit if it's not suitable e.g. ice cream could be ice-cream with fruit salad or cake could be a fruit/savoury muffin. I'd also be letting her snack if she wants, but trading it for some protein/carbs - cheese and bikies, dip, fruit pikelets with yoghurt, boiled egg, roast chicken etc
    As a pp said, it's important not to let them know you're anxious or worried about them. GL

  12. #12
    Registered User

    Jan 2008
    South Australia
    522

    DS2 is exactly the same, except it's not a phase! He pretty much eats 2 weetbix for brekky, maybe a tub of yogurt, half a ssanga on a good day and that's it! I could count the times he has eaten dinner in 2 years! That's why I've continued with toddler formula once a day. But ds1 was the same and then at about 5 started eating and now at 9 eats more than me! I find it really stressful. The only dinner he will eat is risotto, spag Bol and curry but I'll be lucky if he actually WANTS to eat at all. Hope she starts eating again soon hun....I feel ya frustration!