DD doesn't get hungry

[maptome]

I can't recall DD (13 months) ever asking to eat. She asks to nurse only when she is sleepy and wants to nap or go to bed. We were out all day last weekend, and she hadn't had anything to eat or drink for 7 hours. I kept offering the breast and pieces of everything we were eating, but she wanted to walk around and not eat. She was SO CRANKY. Just screaming and screaming. Finally, I got her in the car, DP had to hold a towel over the window, so DD could not look out. She nursed and then resumed to her normal self and was fine to continue with activities.

She's been like this her whole life. I have to persuade her to eat to calm her down. It's as if she doesn't make the association between her crankiness and the need to eat. DP is like this. He doesn't feel hungry (self-admittedly), just gets cranky and dizzyheaded when he needs food. I'm just now realized that maybe DD is like this, too. Does this sound like anyone else's LO?

[beebalmmama]

My ds(8.5 months) is not exactly like that. But he doesn't typically cry to be fed, only if he wants to go to sleep as well. I alway just offer him to nurse and offer food.
He is VERY DISTRACTABLE though and always has been even from the newborn stage. So we typically nurse up in the bedroom or on the couch if I can keep ds(5) quietly playing, but his new game is "distract the baby". Ds will eat at the table with us and will eat a lot more if there isn't much going on or we are all at the table eating.
I even very rarely NIP because it's just so much of a struggle and he just won't nurse. So we usually try to plan to nurse or eat before we head out.

I know for myself I have a personality of just going and doing one more thing and then I'll find myself very cranky, moody and only then realize how hungry I am.

[kayabrink]

My mother, my dd, and I are all like that.
If I go on an all day outing with dd, she will nibble but never feed properly, gets whiny, won't be put down etc. Go anywhere familiar and quiet, she'll nurse for an extended period of time then crash. So, yeah, and it has altered my normal outings- I make sure to stop in at someone's house mid day so she can at least nurse in peace (my mom's or gma's normally). If we go to the science centre/zoo/aquarium whatever, I try and hit the film (Imax, anything similar) around 2 pm- she'll usually nurse then, thanks to the dark and (relative) quiet (she's not yet interested in the film). Or I do your 'hiding in the car' trick if there is no darkened area where we are.
It's crazy because other than this quirk, dd is super easy to deal with (rarely gets fussy as long as I remember to offer the breast- she never asks despite knowing the sign, which she does WHEN she is alread nursing). Whenever she gets whiny and I ask her if she wants to nurse, she stops whining and gets this "ah ha- that's it!" kind of look.
eta: as an adult, I am still like this and haven't entirely learned to deal with it- dh sometimes has to remind me to eat when I'm being *not very nice*

[Plummeting]

It sounds like she's very distractable, since she will eat if you get her in a quiet space w/o mich to look at. My DD2 is already like that at 5 months, and has been since 3 months. Getting her to eat when there are other people around or new things to look at is exhausting and takes forever. We've been out of town a lot lately and I've been half worried the child will starve herself. When we're out, she generally won't eat until it's been several hours (and remember, she's only 5 months old!) and even then, it usually takes 25 minutes to get her latched on and actively nursing for a total of maybe 5. She just pops on and off, looks around, etc.

[octobermom]

yes my oldest.. My oldest was a FTT baby she'd sleep all the time never nurse and when she did would vomit up everything..At around 2.5 months she becaome soo sick we ended up rushing her to the ER. She was diagnoised with Congenital hyperinsulinism a condition where the body OVER produces insulin causing dangerous drops in bloodsugar.. Basically she'd been going into comas..That and severe GURD which was jsut an icky combo.
Shes was treated we learned how to treat at home but unfortunally it also changed the way she even at that age viewed "food" she just refused it by then food was painfull and made her sick why eat?
For about 6 months we had her both on a rigid nursing schedule cause without it she would have quit or flat out not eatten and she was on a special high calorie formula as well needed medically...
Over the first year she slowly got better however since then we have ALWAYS battled food and eatting, shes must eat and must eat the correct balance of things to keep from dropping too low but she will rarely even today at almost 8 years come and say she is hungry.

Deanna