14 months old and still barely eating anything

[mom2happy]

Is anyone else's toddler just nursing for food? My DD will have little pieces of apple, pear, or broccoli and cheerios, but not for a meal. She only takes little tastes for fun. She is fine and fat, but still has to  nurse a lot at night.

I am really tired of the around the clock nursing. She is still going at the rate of a newborn and even if I offer solids instead of the breast, she only has a few tastes and doesn't eat to satiety.

My other babies started late (at 12 months), but were eating 3 little meals a day by now.

[bentlaj11]

I don't have much advice (sorry), but DS finally started eating more at around 14 mo (and had really increased his nursing from 12 mo to then). Hopefully your DD will start soon. He just decided to eat one day!

[titania8]

My youngest was the same way. He ate little bits here and there, but was basically subsisting on milk. Around 15? Months he started eating dinner, and then right around his 2nd bday he really started eating. He's 2.5 on Saturday and is still nursing pretty frequently, but is also eating a decent amount of food. As much as 2 yo eat anyway!

[maptome]

My DD was EBF until 14 months.  She then slowly started eating more and more food.  She's 22 months now, and only recently started sustaining food only (My milk is gone from pregnancy.)  Also, I didn't notice any decrease in nighttime nursing with increase consumption of food.  Looking back, I wish that I hadn't been so stressed trying to feed her food, she just would not eat until she was ready.

[kismetbaby]

Just wanted to chime in. . .my son is 20m and just in the last month has seemed to finally decided to like and eat solid food!  He was just never that into food, but always super into the boobie!  I just kept trying, offering, but not pressuring and trying to believe that he would come to like food in his own time.  And he has!  He still doesn't eat the mountains of food that I see other toddlers eat, but he does eat three meals a day now plus snacks and is willing to try new foods (until recently there were about 6 foods he'd eat and that was it).

He still BFs at night. . .don't think he needs it for calories though and hasn't for months. He just needs it to fall back to sleep although we are finally working on night weaning.

I know it's hard, but I'd say, just trust that she will know when to follow her bodies cues and eat!

[mamatalks]

I'm right there with you. My child just turned 1 and is still not fully interested in eating solids. Still nursing quite frequently and is not at all interested in anything bland! No advice just feeling your "pain".

[newmamalizzy]

My 14 month old has just started to get better about solids, but there's still a very short list of foods she'll eat and she doesn't eat a lot.  DD is formula fed, and it did help when I decreased the amount of formula she was getting in each bottle.  I'm not sure how that would apply with nursing, but it seemed in our case that DD was just never getting hungry enough to EAT solids.  Another thing that's helped (along the same lines) is her getting the "milk" sign down pat.  It's a lot easier for me to organize her optimum food/milk schedule now that I don't have to intuit everything. 

[crunchy_mommy]

DS really barely took even bites until 14mos and didn't eat tiny 'meals' until 18mos and only since he turned 2 has he eaten what I'd consider typical toddler amounts. But he is an awesome eater now.

I will say we didn't keep it purely child-led, because if he had his way he'd have nursed exclusively until at least age 2!!! Which may be fine for some but was NOT OK with me, I just couldn't handle it. Around 18mos we really pushed solids quite a bit. DH did a lot of it, doing things like reading to him while he ate to distract him into eating more, things like that, and we'd always offer food first if he asked to nurse -- even a bite or two before nursing would add up throughout the day. He still nursed a TON but started eating more too... He didn't drop off with the nursing until he was 2 (now he only nurses for a few hours in the morning and 3-4 times throughout the rest of the day, which is much more tolerable!!) We also discovered he was willing to eat WAY more if we were out (and even better if a friend offered food to him instead of me!) so we spent a lot more time out with friends.

[mommy212]

I don't think there's anything wrong with EBF at 14 months, so I would just continue to offer solids frequently when you know she is hungry. Do you offer lots of different types of food? My LO wasn't real interested until we started adding more flavor to his food, with spices and flavors he hadn't had before. 

[Anandamama]

My babe also wasn't interested in solids much until 14 mo or so.  It sounds to me like it might be time for you to instigate night-weaning.  Then leave your son with someone else during the day for a couple hours.  He'll probably start to eat more when you are not around.  He might protest at first but will soon adapt.  At least that was my experience. 

[McGucks]

Right there with you.  Our LO is 14 1/2 months, and most days he eats maybe a quarter-cup of various bites.  He still gets up to nurse several times at night, but it's likely less for nutrition and more to get him back to sleep.  He has tried and been offered many, many foods...he's just not that into it yet.  His weight has always been great (99th percentile before he started walking, now he's 75% and walking).  I do get a little tired of all the nursing sometimes, too, but mostly it only gets on my nerves if I'm irritable for some other reason.  I try to remember I am very lucky to have enough milk and be healthy enough myself to sustain him.  But I get it, mama, believe me.  It's a lot to be responsible for!

[dimitroff03]

My son is almost 15 months and doesn't eat much food either.  Nurses a LOT.  Big strong and healthy though so I'm not really concerned about it.  I offer him whatever I'm eating and some days he eats more than others...some days not really anything at all.  I've been seeing a coorelation between his teething and desire to eat food.  Guess I don't really have any advice.  Just an "I understand" too!