my kid won't eat anymore. WHAT TO DO????

[etwahl]

up until 1 year old, she ate GREAT!!! everything and anything it seemed. now i fix well balanced meals and i'm lucky if she eats one or two bites and then starts throwing food on the floor (she's always done this) and shakes her head NO when i try and feed her some. but then she's always asking for crackers...so she's hungry, she just only wants to eat crackers. she used to eat blueberries and blackberries like they were going out of style. no interest now.

how do i get her to eat??? i haven't introduced any milk besides Breastfeeding yet.

and on a side note, how do i get her to stop throwing food over? i will take it away, but then she clearly wants some of it (even if only a bite or two).

feeding her these days is SOOOOOOO frustrating.

Tammy,
Mom to Lauren Genevieve
03/12/2003
www.evantammy.com

[peanut4us]

Tammy--Lauren is older than Sara a little bit, so take this with a grain of salt if you like. Sara started exhibiting this type of eating behavior about 3 weeks ago. She now does the "I'm hungry, feed me now... eat a bite or 2, throw it out and demand something else" cycle. Fun... It was really fun last night picking up her roast beef, mashed potatoes and buttered bread (butter side down, naturall) off of the floor. So, I don't have a solution for that. Although I have noticed that sometimes she wants me to give her many pieces at once and sometimes she only wants a piece or 2 at a time, and if I can somehow tune into which way she wants it, I have less on the floor at the end of the meal.

What I'm doing a la Ellyn Satter is deciding what to feed her before I put her in her high chair. For example, last night we had roast beast, potatoes, carrots, and bread. All of that, she can eat. I gave her the stuff I expected her to "poo-poo" first, the beast and the potatoes. SHe actually ate it better then I expected. Then I gave her the carrots, then last the bread. She would live on bread alone if you let her. Ok, maybe some banana too ;). After she decided she didn't want anymore of that, then I gave her some pealed, cut grapes. She scarfed the first 2 servings down and played with the last, so I knew she was done.

I'm trying to "avoid" being a short order cook for her in her not too distance stubborn toddler future. That's why I have to decide what's on her menu before I even put her in her chair. I try to pick 2 of 4 or 5 things I know she likes to eat to make sure that she will eat something. Then I feed her in the order of her least likely to eat. If I give her the favorite foods first (like fruit or bread),then she will NOT eat anything else. And while sometimes, she will only have 2 bites of the veggie I wanted her to eat, it is 2 bites more than she would have had if I had just served her what I know she really likes. KWIM?

Also, I like saving hre most favorite thing for last, usually fruit as a dessert. It's a good indicator to me that when she stops eating it (starting throwing it or smushing it), she really is full. I'm afraid sometimes when I end a meal with something that is usually a 2-bite item, she will go away hungry.

Probably didn't answer your question. Probably too much of a discourse, but I hope it might help a little... so give Lauren the crackers AFTER you've presented a well-balanced meal to her... don't expect her to tank up on the meal... just give hre the chance to ;)

[lfp2n]

Hi Tammy

Not much advice, just sympathy as Olivia is doing this too and its sooo frustrating. She used to be a great eater and now she's very picky. She won't eat anything with cereal in, or anything that might or previously had cereal in, like applesauce, overnight she stopped eating yoghurt her previous favorite food, somedays she loves pasta other days hates it. What really frustrates me is that some foods I now she likes like applesauce and if you could get a spoonful past the pursed lips and shaking head she'd eat it, but theres nothing you can do. My only tips are only putting 2 or 3 bits of food on the tray which stops the throwing and I think is not so overwhelming. Like Joey I think the order is key, I usually start with cheese or something I really want her to have and end with the sweeter stuff that she likes.

I'm trying to switch to some cows milk, and today the one bottle of EBM she used to have at daycare is full cow after a gradual transition all week. I haven't managed to introduce much more although I offer it at all her meals. I'm hoping to drop one of the 4 nursings for milk soon but I don't know how that will go.

HIH

Lucy and Olivia (3/27/03)

[nathansmom]

Nathan has been this way for months. I offer him food and he will play with it after only one or two bites. No advice as I'm still struggling with him but I have noticed one thing. If his dad eats off of Nathan's tray with him he will usually copy everything his dad does. I've also given him his favorite foods last, although it seems his favorites change daily.

[etwahl]

here are my responses to some of the responses so far!

- i don't actually feed her crackers when she's asking for them. like at the end of the meal, if she doesn't eat what i've given her, then too bad. SOMETIMES i will give her something but not usually.

- i have just been putting all her food in her bowl at once. because i'm alone i usually have only a few minutes to SCARF my food before she is done and starts throwing food out and wants out of the high chair! it's great fun!!!

- i usually give her at lunch and dinner a starch (pasta or rice), a protein, vegetable and that's the standard meal. then i give fruit for dessert. for snacks i will give yogurt, toast, crackers, cheese, etc.

- i try eating the food off her plate, she seems happy for me to eat it instead of her.

- she of course though wants something i have - like a banana and will eat bites directly off the banana.

she still nurses A LOT! part of me wonders if she's getting so much from nursing then maybe that's why she doesn't eat as much. she nurses probably every 3 to 4 hours during the day, but every 2-3 hours at night. so i know she tanks up at night like crazy.

BUT she is signing "eat" a lot also. and she knows how to say cracker (ca-ca) but i think she thinks a lot of foods are crackers and she just lumps them in (crackers, cheerios, cookies) whenever i open the cabinet that has this type of food, she says ca-ca ca-ca!!

Okay, next question, when does the eating get better? is there a certain age?

part of me also wonders if the food i cook her is too bland. i just got used to eating without a lot of sauces, etc. maybe that's a problem? sigh.

oh yeah, then sometimes she rubs her head and i think "headache because she's not eating..." but is that possible? and sometimes i hear her little tummy growling.

Tammy,
Mom to Lauren Genevieve
03/12/2003
www.evantammy.com

[Torey]

I don't want to encourage you to follow my suggestions - but here is what we do. I never use our highchair. I let DD sit in my lap and eat or I feed her while she is sitting on the ground playing or watching a Baby Einstein video. I've heard this is a bad idea but it is the ONLY way I can get her to eat consistently. Since she is no longer nursing I feel the most important thing is to get her to eat. She self feeds some, or she lets me feed her. Some things she will eat off a spoon (yogurt, cottage cheese), but most things I just cut into little bites and feed to her with my fingers (grilled cheese, omlets, macaroni and cheese, veggies).

If I tried to feed DD in the highchair she would just throw all the food on the floor and she probably wouldn't eat any of it. Occasionally I have tried to feed her in there but since she ate so little and threw most of the food, I end up feeding her again out of the chair. The benefit to feeding her in my lap, or on the floor is I know exactly how much she eats (since it isn't all over the floor, or in the highchair). Also, I probably feed her about 6 times a day - 3 meals and 3 snacks.

It sounds like Lauren is getting a lot from BFd'ing. My DD did not seriously eat solid foods in any quantity until she weaned herself. HTH!

[KathyO]

I've been exactly where you are. Part of the problem is that toddler growth slows dramatically at this point, so suddenly it seems like they're getting by on two or three molecules of food per meal. And they get into food fads. I remember one week of DD eating watermelon and nothing else... And foods pass in and out of favour, so you never know what's going to suddenly get rejected. (Usually immediately after I got a really good deal on whatever was this week's "in" food, and stocked up on it. You think I'd learn.)

The bottom line... as distressing as it is for you as her Mommy, as long as her eyes are bright and her energy level's good, you're probably just fine. Try not to invest too much energy into food prep, because it only makes it harder on you to see it hit the floor. Get sneaky if it gets any results (I have a recipe where you puree fruit and yogurt and freeze it into popsicles - these were a great treat), but don't drive yourself nuts trying to outwit someone who just plain has more interesting things happening in her life than food at this time. (More interesting things in life than food? No, I don't believe it either, but this is what I've seen.)

How to curtail the food throwing? I forget who it was on this forum who said, "When food is fun, the meal is done." And if you can't overcome the feeling that you are depriving your child (who is pitching the food rather than eating it, so she can't be too hungry), then only give her a bit at a time, and no more food until she's finished the piece she's got. That way at least you don't have to clean quite so much of it off the floor. Or get a dog... or a composter...

Hang in there - this too shall pass!

KathyO

[jubilee]

I think Logan is entering this stage too! He will shake his head no to food until I give in and give him some grapes or other favorite food. But other times he will eat great, without complaint- except for our struggle on him wanting to fingerfeed everything. I wish I had suggestions, but with my oldest he ate like a horse and I fed him babyfood or toddler prepackaged food until he was about 2 years old. (Crazy, I know) This time around is a real learning experience for me!