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View Full Version : Anyone else's toddler drastically change eating habits?



Roleysmom
10-03-2003, 11:13 AM
Hi!I'm taking a big leap here and admiting (reluctantly!) that DD is a toddler now and I should be posting over here rather than in the baby bargains lounge. (Wahhhh!)

Wouldn't you know, just after I gave some advice on feeding, Roley has drastically changed her eating habits. She used to sit down and have a pretty hearty meal four or five times a day. In the last week and a half, she has stopped doing that and now grazes. She is always asking to eat, but when I sit her down she may have a couple of bites and that's it. Then 20 minutes later she wants to eat again. She'll always eat something, but usually not more than a triangle of a pbj sandwich or half a cheese stick, etc. Wednesday night (2:30 a.m.) and last night (11:30 p.m.), she woke up from a sound sleep saying she wanted to eat. On Wed. DH tried to get her back to sleep without feeding her but it didn't work. He took her downstairs and she did eat some. It still took her about an hour to fall asleep after that. Since it happened the night before, I made sure yesterday that she ate right before we went up to read a story and go to bed. When she woke up, we kept her upstairs and I brought her up milk and a cheese stick. She drained two full cups of milk and ate the cheese. Then she went back to bed without any problems. (She has always been a good sleeper, so I think this is more of a hunger issue than a sleep issue.) My only thought was that maybe she hasn't been getting enough milk during the day and that's made her hungry at night?

Any thoughts on why this may be happening and what I can do to make sure she is eating enough during the day would be most appreciated!


Paula-- mom to Roley Julia 01-04-02

egoldber
10-03-2003, 07:12 PM
Other than offering the bedtime snack, there's not much you can do get her to eat more during the day. It is VERY normal for their food intake to drop off to seemingly nothing on some days! And my DD also occasionally wakes at night asking to eat or drink milk. Since she doesn't do it every night and seems hungry when we feed her, when this happens, I do feed her. Sometimes she only wants milk, but sometimes she has eaten practically an entire meal.

If it continues to happen, one thing you could do is offer her higher calorie foods. Put butter on veggies. Add some powdered milk to her regular milk to make it "super milk". Use milk instead of water to mix with cereal or other dried foods, oatmeal, etc. Only use whole milk yogurt and cheeses and not non-fat or lowfat options, etc. This could help her get more calories from what she does eat.

HTH,

Roleysmom
10-03-2003, 11:24 PM
Thanks, Beth. It makes me feel better to know that Sarah will occasionally wake up hungry too. I will watch her intake during the day closely and make sure she's getting high calorie foods. We'll see if she wakes up tonight hungry.

Thanks again --

Paula-- mom to Roley Julia 01-04-02