Kid not eating

tet

tet

Registered User
Has anyone tried giving appetite stimulants to their kids? My 2yo just won't eat and drinks too little milk. Any tips welcome. Thanks
 
What do you mean by appetite stimulants? If you are talking about any kind of drug/ herbal supplement that is a horrible idea. If your child is losing weight from the appetite loss you should definitely take him/ her to a doctor. Little things, a cold for example, can cause appetite loss for a couple days but any longer than that, or if you are concerned about dehydration from not drinking, really see a pediatrician.
 
i agree! i think giving a child something like that at only 2 years of age could have LONG reaching consequences.

when you say, "just won't eat" what do you mean? do you mean doesn't eat everything you give him? does it mean eats two bites then says he's full? does it mean on some days eats more than others?

it is highly unlikely that your child doesn't eat. he just may not eat as much as you'd like him to.

my 5 year old is a picky eater, but after a lot of persistance on my part will now at least try most things. there are some favourites that we never have to argue about:
fish & chips
salmon sashimi
spag bol
prawn cakes
chicken skewers
cheese sandwich
ham sandwich (or ham & cheese)
cheesey macaroni
white rice
siu yuk
cha siu bao
steamed prawns
lobster noodles (the kind that comes with cheese lobster)

sometimes kids will LOVE something one day and then HATE it the next... you just gotta roll with it. don't offer anything else... eventually your child will eat.

no child will starve themselves.

ps. my 5 year old son is only 1 lb heavier than my 3 year old daughter.
 
1. show him to a doctor if the appetitie loss is consistent and prolonged.
2. try try try different foods... kids get bored plus their tastes change very often.
 
It's very usual for kids this age to become picky... not all kids, but some ! mine is one of them, and it seems that some days he just does not eat anything at all !
We have decided not to stress at all, he eats the quantity he wants, but we don't propose anything else.
It also depends if he is teething, has a cold, a little it of fever... appetite comes and goes.
If yours still have the energy to play around, then he is probably doing good.
 
Mine is 4 now and he hasn't "eaten well" for a very long time. He will not touch any meat with the exception of German sausages (which obviously he can't have everyday!) No matter how hard we've tried to hide it. No seafood either. He's strictly vegetarian but will consume his milk and eggs.

We've not given him any supplements. He seems fine. So don't worry too much about it.

*Note - He won't drink all brands of milk. It's got to be Australian. It tastes the same to me but not to him.
 
Get your child to do plenty of exercise and make sure he/ she poops everyday. Lack of either can lead to poor appetite.
Eat with your child, it makes a difference if he/ she sees you eating the same food.
Don't offer snacks in- between meals or as a substitute (This does not hold true for children with a good appetite)
Try different flavours in the food, try adding mild spices. Identify which time of the day your child is most hungry and feed him proper meals at that time.
Appreciate your child when he/ she does finish his meal. Offer dessert at the end of the meal. Kids do eat when distracted either by toys or tv, so if its acceptable try either.
Change the venue of the meal, take it outdoors to the park or play area.
Invite a friend whose child eats well and make them sit together to eat, makes a big difference when they see another child eating, they might too. Don't compare them but just make sure you child is aware of the other one eating.
Before running into the conclusion that he/ she does not like a certain food try it at least 20 times.
 
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Thank you for the inputs, appreciate it. Some people have suggested giving artificial (drug) appetite stimulants and I'm not so sure if I should do it or not. And you are right, since he is perfectly healthy, why mess with that? I guess I was just unnecessarily stressed about my son not eating as much and the way he used to. He's only eating 50% of what he used to eat before even after all those tried and tested and new distractions and tricks. I hope it's just a phase and he'll get back to liking food again in the future. I will try some of your ideas and think of more.
 
the great thing about raising kids? you are RARELY the only one experiencing anything! there is ALWAYS someone else going through the exact same thing!
 
I have a question about the offering food 20 times before giving up. I've heard this before (offering anywhere from 15 - 20 times) and it seems to make sense, BUT - what if your child won't even touch it? Does "offering" mean placing it in front of the child? Or is the assumption that the child will at least put it in their mouth to decide if they like it or not? I can offer something to my daughter every day for weeks and if its not something she wants to eat, she will immediately push it away. This has caused both of us lots of frustration! She will try new fruits and grains, but can somehow sense when a dish contains meat or veggies! Any suggestions or comments? Thanks!!
 
i now tell my son tha the has to choose ONE vegetable (we often have 2 at the table)... he MUST chose at least 1 of them. i then specify "how many" of that one that he must eat. not usually too many, say, 2 or 3 bites worth. his dinner is NOT finished until that is gone. he gets NOTHING else to eat until the next day breakfast if he doesn't eat it.

we also found that once he started full-day schoo, where lunch was served, he started eating more veg.

he now likes: carrots, corn and mushrooms....we can also get him to eat caesar salad, so long as it has one crouton for every bite of lettuce for him!

i got the book: DECEPTIVELY DELICIOUS that is all about hiding the veg and the kids dont' know it's there...

ie) pureed beetroot in pancakes, make the pancakes pink! the kids LOVED them! pureed blueberries produce blue pancakes etc

a little pureed carrot mixed in with mac & cheese or even pureed cauliflower
 
I actually got that book as well, but found that the actual amount of vegetables (in the baked goods anyway) was pretty small for the serving size (like 1/2 cup pured veg in a recipe that makes a dozen muffins) and so I wondered if it was really worth it...and when she won't eat mac and cheese, etc to begin with, most of the other ideas didn't work.

I have a 1.5 year old who does not yet understand reasoning - ie: choose one veg, eat 5 pieces - so asking her to decide doesn't work either. I put the food in front of her, she pushes it away without trying it. I do give her something that I know she will eat afterward - maybe she's anticipating this now. I just can't put her to bed without eating!
 
yep! gotta STOP offering other food... if she knows it's coming there's no incentive to eat anything else!

we've all been through these stages. my daughter, luckily eats almost everything... it's my son i have to watch.

i DID find that when i stopped stressing about it, it got better... but that is also when we stopped offering ANYTHING else.. NOTHING between meals and if dinner wasn't finished, then nothing until breakfast...

took a day or two of "hungry! i'm hungry!" before it sank in that if he didn't eat dinner, he wasn't eating anything else.

yes, you CAN put her to bed without eating! it's not like missing one meal will starve her. if you REALLY don't want to do that, then offer her the same food again, if she still refuses, she's not THAT hungry!

a child will NOT starve themselves...but if you want her to eat what you offer, then you hae to stop offering something else.

(one thing you can do is offer a slice of bread... nothing on it... just plain bread. if she doesn't eat dinner, she can have that...nothing else... i've done that withmy kids... sometimes they accept the offer sometimes they eat their dinner... just depends.)

it amazes me how early kids learn to manipulate us! they are msters by the age of two!LOL!
 
ps> as far as i'm concerned... ANY veg is better than NO veg....

oops! just saw the new quick reply options... will endeavour to use the bold instead of the caps from now on! sorry!
 
my 2.5 year old is also a picky eater which I think is normal since their taste buds are constantly changing. sometimes he'll love 1 thing 1 week then the next will not even open his mouth for a bite. A few foods though that are our rescue meals are: 3 cheese tortellini in the refrigerated aisle, anything mixed with orzo/white rice, chicken stir fry, salmon stir fry, chicken pot pie and and almost anything with annabel karmel's white cheese sauce. we also now do dinner playdates like geomum mentioned above eating with another child. we do a 4 - 6pm playdate so the kids can eat together. This way not only do you get a break, but they also get see their friends eating and get to try new foods that you might not otherwise think about making.
 
We try not to have any snacks for a couple of hrs before dinner - and nothing after dinner. If she doesn't eat much of her dinner, I figure she'll make up for it at breakfast the next day. Kids eat when they're hungry and aren't going to starve themselves. I think that one thing is, if you want them to eat something in particular, but then you offer alternatives, then they know they they can pick and choose what they're going to eat. My 1.5 year old also can be fussy at time (each day last week she wanted pasta - and would cry if dinner was NOT pasta) - but we try to insist as much as we can that she does eat what we give her (ie, the same food as the rest of us). She often spits out her vegetables and doesn't like to eat them that much - but I figure if I cut it up small enough and stir it in with some of the other stuff, she'll inadvertently swallow a bit of it - and even if she chews them and spits them out, at least she's getting used to the taste of it. I don't make a huge deal about it at this age because you can't really reason with them. She does understand though if I tell her she has to eat one spoon of x before I'll give her y and she's generally pretty good at doing that... Overall, she's a pretty good eater, I'd say...
 
Can you imagine how much money we're throwing away by all this waste? I was just thinking about that today. I must waste $500-$1000 a month for all the stuff that my nearly 1.5 year old either won't try, spits out, or eats 2 bites of. Very frustrating. But we plug on:)
 
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