help! so stressed that baby not eating!

K

kara23

Registered User
My son is going through a phase of "fasting". he used to love to eat, whatever kind of congee we made or cereal, he would take it without a fuss. Even after a bowl of congee, he would want a jar of baby food as dessert. Now he is 16 mths, and suddenly refusing to eat any congee, cereal or even his milk. I know I should not forcefeed him but sometimes it is so frustrating to see him refusing to even open his mouth. i have cut down on snacks (he likes crackers and those japanese baby biscuits) so that he will be hungry during meal time but not helping.
Does anyone have this experience and any advice? Is it ok to just let him be for now?
 
i child will NEVER let themselves starve. my son is 21 months and goes through stages that he eats very little breakfast or lunch but have a little more at dinner time. just keep offering the food. when he's hungry, he'll eat. DO NOT force feed him, you'll just create further issues and a power struggle.

maybe he needs more interesting food than congee and cereal...he's probably getting bored.

my boy LOVES pasta, noodles, macaroni, rice, potatoes...hates his veggies and dislikes meat.
he does like fruit and so i make sure that he eats a lot of it: raspberries, strawberries, bananas, apple, kiwi, watermelon etc.

he also likes cherrios. sometimes, that's all he'll have for his dinner. i don't make a fuss over it. i figure if it's ok for breakfast, why not dinner. the great thing about cheerios is that he thinks he's getting something special...

the other thing is, i often find that if i'm standing over him, telling/asking him to eat, he'll make a fuss (get attention) but if i give him the food in his high chair and walk away, he'll fuss for a few minutes, then eat. he likes having tv on when he eats and i don't mind as it's not evey meal.

good luck and RELAX!
 
One thing that worked well for me when my children didn?t eat much was having a grazing table. I?d fill four or five little bowls with finger foods ? cut up apples (a squeeze of lemon helped to stop discolouration), cheese cubes, raisins, cherrios, cherries, grapes, cooked sweet potato cubes, etc. Then I?d leave them on a low table at the toddler height. Slowly throughout the day my child would eat them. So this way I didn?t have to worry about a set breakfast, lunch and dinner time.

I also found that having older siblings helped a lot as role models with my younger children. Do you have any friends with older children that you could invite over?

My youngest child went through a phase of only wanting to eat spaghetti bolognese. She had it for all three meals a day but seemed happy enough with it. And eventually she started to eat other foods again.

I talked with a friend recently who reminded me that I used to worry about how little my son ate ? he is now 16 and I now worry about how much he eats!

Best wishes,
Barb
 
he may not be as hungry now as he was when young as his growth will be slowing down now. The approach I take is I offer breakfast, snack, lunch, snakc, supper, and snack, and my son must sit at the table with us, if he doesn't eat, that is fine, he has to wait until the next meal/snack to eat again. I offer him what the family eats, I don't make a separate meal for him is he is picky. Some days he eats a lot, and some days hardly anything. A healthy child willnot starve themselves, so don't worry about it. His body knows if he needs to eat. I also agree with the idea of giving him more variety, other than congee. At 16 months he can eat pretty much anything that you eat, as long as it is cut up in small safe peices. My son at that age ate rice, chicken, beef, fish, pork, all kinds of fuit, and veggies, cheese, anything that I ate.
 
Thanks for all your advice!! I woke up today and told myself not to stress myself out over his meals so hopefully everything will be ok! I do have an older son who is 6 and he eats almost everything. Maybe i will ask him to sit with his younger brother and encourage him to eat with him!
 
Hi kara - I feel for you since my 16 mth daughter also had a hunger strike for the past 2 weeks!! I was so frustrated that I have started to do the following which seem to work: (similar to what other moms said)

1. no more congee - but cook soft japanese rice
2. have the rice go with things like: tofu pot, egg custard, scrambled egg with cheese, spinach/vege puree blended with meat/fish, salmon or with melted cheese
3. start to make different soups everyday so I can serve the rice and soup together for more nutrition value.
4. for breakfast, i now mix in fresh fruit puree (like apple, pear etc) with oatmeal, or yam puree mixed with flaxseed. She seems to like them
5. milk - i usually warm the milk (fresh cow milk) and mix in chocolate mix or sesame soy milk if necessary.
 
at 16 months, you shouldn't be puree-ing too much... your child needs to get used the the "real" textures of food and they should have enough teeth to be chewing food properly.
 
Hi Kara,

My daughter was exactly like that! Her doctor said, take her to Sabah, give her chicken masala and satay and sambal prawns and roti canai hahaa... she is bored with congee and those baby food. So, I started giving her rice with different type of soup, noodle, pasta and healthier adult food, quite similar with what the other mums said.

Jangan risau, kalau dia lapar, dia akan makan! Selamat bercuti!
 
I totally agree with offering healthy adult meals to toddlers. My son (nearly 15mths) gets really excited when he sees whats on mummy/daddy's plate so we always end up giving him some to try. Alternatively I also use toddler recipes and cook for the whole family to eat.

My only concern with adult foods is the salt/sodium content. I never add salt when cooking, however sometimes when I do stir-fry I use sauces such as soy sauce and oyster sauce. Are these ok to give to toddlers?
 
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