He won't eat!!!

[MeAndVee]

I know I have probably posted this subject to death but I am seriously worried. His doctor dismisses my concerns, saying he is growing so he is fine. But he won't eat! If I'm lucky he will eat most of his breakfast and than nothing at all again until 7 when DH gets home. Than he will eat food from his plate but not his own. I am at my wits end here. I have tried grazing with some success. Sure he is growing and has put on a little weight. So should I stop worrying and just let him lead the way with how much and when he eats? Oh, and I let him drink kefir and juice at will. He doesn't drink in excess though. Maybe 2 cups kefir and 1 cup juice. Any suggestions would be lovely! Thanx.

Catherine & Vee

[cristeen]

Personally, I'd cut out the juice. Juice has a LOT of sugar in it - so he's getting lots of energy from that, and not getting the "slow down or eat" signals from his body. He'd be a lot better off with eating the fruit than drinking the juice.

Dairy kefir has lots of great things including fat in it, so 2 c of that a day is probably replacing a full meal or more right there.

You didn't say how old he is... I know that many mamas freak out at how little their LOs seem to survive on, but really they can survive on very little food at times. 2 meals/day + 2 c of dairy kefir really doesn't seem like all that little to me. I guess it would depend on how big those meals really are.

[WuWei]

Try some green juice. :

I used to "need" an animal protein first thing in the morning or else I'd graze on carbs all day long. I didn't realize that green juice has all the amino acids to make a complete protein, AND all the essential amino acids!!

"Greens are one of the most nutritious whole food we can eat but we rarely eat enough of them. They are loaded with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids (protein). The truth is, you can get more nutrients in a pint of green smoothie than most people get in a full day of "normal" eating!' http://forum.gotgreensrevolution.com....php?topic=8.0

Just water (preferably mineral water), plus fruit, plus baby greens in a standard blender! Or use a juicer to extract the juice from dark, leafy greens (optimal). OMGosh, I feel better with green juice for breakfast. It has vitamin K, A, C, E, manganese, folate, magnesium, iron, B2, calcium, potassium, B6, tryptophan, etc. http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php

This is a useful post about the purpose of individual vitamins and minerals: http://www.bodybuilding-tips.net/s21/t7060.html


I like the site "Got Greens?" for smoothie ideas. http://gotgreensrevolution.com/ Smoothies are easiest, if you have a blender. If you have a juicer, just juice any vegetables. We use greens, beets, celery, cucumbers, carrots, peppers, spinach, Romaine lettuce, etc. I've subsequently read that it is best to have fruit juice separately from the vegetable juice, due to the acidity. So, we just do vegetable juice in the morning. And fruit whole or juiced later in the day, separately.

Juice/smoothie recipes: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...ighlight=juice



Pat

[Ruthla]

How old is the child? Is he nursing?

If he's drinking a lot of kefir, I'd count that as "eating"- kefir is chock full of nutrition, fat, protein, and calories. Ditto on breastmilk, if applicable.

1 cup of juice sounds like a lot to me. It's more juice than I personally consume each day! My kids might drink that much at once, but not every single day. I'd cut down the juice, dilute it, or stop offering it.

[lil_earthmomma]

My ds1 (28 mo) eats like a bird. Here's a typical day:

Wakes up and nurses
Green smoothie with Kefir for breakfast (He probably drinks 1/2 a cup)
eats some cheese, a bit of ham or chicken (like 1 bite or 2 at the most)
eats a fruit (like an apircot, a plum, some cherries etc.)
eats some crackers and cheese (like 4 crackers and 2 slices of cheese) or half a slice of bread slathered in butter
eats a couple of nuts
eats no supper. Ever. Not sure why but he's really dug in his heels lately, and no matter what I serve, I'm lucky if he takes one bite, then asks for a banana.
Nurses before bed.

So that's not a lot, but he's growing and healthy, and I figure that the green smoothie with kefir goes a long way.

s

Oh, and today I left some butter on the table (oops) and he was really quiet while eating his cherries. I got up from nursing ds2 to see what he was up to and he had eaten ALL OF THE BUTTER! I was torn between being happy to see him consume so much healthy fat and upset that he had just eaten a whole stick of expensive butter.

[MeAndVee]

He is 22.5 months. All weekend he ate nothing all day than had something from his dad at around 6pm, so I was a little upset. I nixed the juice. The only reason I was doing juice was because the doctor said as because he doesn't drink milk he should get fortified juice instead. When we weaned at 18 months he wouldn't take milk in a cup or sippy. Never had juice until than. He doesn't BF. He is eating right now as we speak. I will never understand his eating habits. He was like this as a nursling too. I will try the smoothies. He prefers to consume his calories in liquid form anyway! Thanx for the help. bye.

[Aiti]

I do agree that 2-3 year olds can seem to live on nothing, and I think if your doctor is not concerned you can relax a little. The only thing that would bother me is that he's not eating for such a long stretch (breakfast to 7 pm). Does he get cranky by the end of the day?

Ideas... Have you tried setting out little snack trays of food that he can grab and go while he's playing? Things like cut-up fruit, veggies, crackers. Or maybe he'd like to have a novel place to eat, like a tiny toddler-size table and chair, or a picnic blanket on the floor. Funny story: My little DS went through a phase where he wanted to eat IN a laundy basket every night! So I let him... I just would set him in there with his plate and he was happy as a clam.

But again, I think if your doctor's not concerned you might need to relax about it a little. Whatever you do, DON'T make eating into a power struggle. Hugs and good luck!

[MeAndVee]

Amazingly he doesn't get cranky at all. He is happy as can be all day long. It just floors me. He has a toddler table that I keep snacks at for him. Somedays he will eat all day and others I'm lucky if he takes two bites. I weighed him on the bathroom scale yesterday and in less than a month he gained almost a pound!!! How he managed that I do not know. Who knew air was so high in calories.

[Llyra]

I was always astonished at how little my kiddos seemed to eat. Toddlers are notorious for it, in fact.

The peak time for living on air seems to be from 18 months to 2 1/2, in my experience. I wouldn't worry about it if he's growing. I would cut the juice, for sure. Let him drink water for thirst, and get his calories from solids, or at least from something dense in nutrients like a kefir or yogurt smoothie or something. I'd also limit snacks to only the healthiest options. Otherwise, I'd really try not to worry about it. Their caloric needs are really low at this age. And you really can trust their appetites to guide them to eat when they need to. If you make nutrient-dense healthy foods available, he'll eat just what he needs to.

I know it's hard not to worry; my DD1 lived on almost nothing but peaches and yogurt for months, and it was nerve-wracking. But she's fine now, and she's branched out a lot in her food choices.

I think that it's normal for them to seem to eat very little, by our standards. If every kid ate as much as his parents seemed to want him to eat, we'd probably have overweight kids. The best policy seems to be to make the good food available, and let them do the rest.