Could teeth cause bad eating for months?

[Eva's Mummy]

I am at a loss, it has been months and months and my DD still wont eat well. I have tried spoon feeing, finger foods, giving her a fork. She doesn't seem to have a preference to any of these but she just wont eat. Today she had 1/2 a weetabix, small yoghurt, 1/2 slice toast and 3/4 a banana and that is it. That is quite a nomal amount for her.

I am wonderning if teeth could be causing part of it, for the past 8 months every time i think we will get a wee break as a tooth pops through another one starts to cut a couple of days later. But in those non drooling days she will eat pasta, h/m chicken nuggets, h/m fish fingers, potato waffles, sausages so could it all be down to teeth, surley not for this length of time.

I feel so stressed at every meal, i never know what to feed her, i know it will just end up in the bin. I am just hoping there will be light at the end of the food tunnel.

[michaeljacknnugg]

It could be teeth, I guess. A lot of toddlers seem to live on air though, so maybe she needs less foodthan you think. Is she having minimum milk to ensure she's actually hungry?

At this age a lot did go in the bin, tbh. I tried to just offer a choice of easy things eg lunch would be a cracker, some cheese, cucumber and tomato. Maybe a couple of other/different things, but all stuff that is easy to pull out and put away again.

[Eva's Mummy]

milk wise she has about 5oz on WU, 5oz Snack around 3pm then only takes about 3-4oz at BT. Is that ok or too much?

I think thats a good idea for lunch, i do tend to do hot meals for lunch and dinner. That would take the stress away for 1 meal. So would you offer what you said then yoghurt and fruit afterwards?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I find it is also helpful to remember that a child's stomach is roughly the size of their fist...so portion sizes are a lot smaller! If she is not filling up on milk to the detriment of her solids diet (and really she is just over the "until one, food for fun" point as well!) and she is happy and healthy then she is getting what she needs.

[anna*]

^^^^ this. 3/4 of a banana could totally be a full meal.

For reference. I know Audrey is a lot older, and she's a BIG girl (98th centile) but here's what's she's eaten today.

Cereal for breakfast, about equivalent to half-3/4 Weetabix
A small satsuma
About 1tsp peas, about 2Tbs savoury mince. Didn't touch potatoes.
Small yoghurt, 2 small slices of apple (each about the size of a chip)
A small slice of birthday cake, a boiled egg, 1/2 a slice of toast.

That is a very normal amount of food for her, and she's definitely a 'good eater' so I would expect most kids to be eating less than that.

[LovelyLilyandJack]

I agree,  it might just be that she doesn't need much.  My almost 4 year old only eats about a slice of toast, three quarters of a weetabix,  half an apple,  a quarter of a sandwich,  a yoghurt,  a couple of chunks of meat,  maybe 1 small new potato, a stick or two of carrot and a cracker or so each day.  Today she went to a party and chose 5 crisps and a mini roll for her tea and only ate the crisps and half the mini roll 

She's never eaten much and has many many meals which consist of just a few mouthfuls,  but I weighed her the other day and she's on the same centile as when she was born still.  I actually think she looks slightly chunky if anything!  She just does a lot with very little food.  She will have the odd day when she eats a lot more but since she was a baby the vast majority of days have been as I described above (but obviously a lot less,  quantity wise,  as a baby!). Then she'll sit down and eat 3 portions of spag bol out of the blue one day! It's just the way she is....

[LovelyLilyandJack]

One other thing I thought of,  I've also found with lily that she will hold off eating meals if she thinks she'll get something else more interesting or can wander around with food at snack time so I have to be strict now about when snacks are allowed,  what she has and how she eats it to get her to eat enough at lunch to tide her over til the next snack time. 

Also, if she knows something more interesting than her current food is coming for pudding she stops eating.  It's quite clever really cos she's sort of self regulating and making sure she has room for pudding but I'd obviously prefer her to fill up on her main course and leave pudding if she's full.  I don't mind so much with yoghurt or fruit but generally I have to keep pudding as a surprise or it ruins dinner.  I have never been able to use pudding as a bribe or motivation for eating more of her main course (not that I want to actually, but still!). So we don't do pudding with every meal and I only offer it casually after she says she's finished if I offer it at all.

Anyway, thought I'd share in case it helps!

[Eva's Mummy]

That all helps so so much i have been expecting her to eat WAY too much. If i was being lazy an tried those fish dippers in the shape of a fish i would give her 2 of them, plus 2 smilie faces and some veg, then offer strawberries, raisins and yoghurt and the same size meal for dinner.

I think i will start to offer one smaller meal like crackers, tomatoes, cucumber etc and one main meal as such but just alot smaller than i have been.

I feel so silly for worrying now, thank you all so much. 

[anna*]

I hope you find that works better for you. Even for my big boy who's now almost 6, I find that offering really small portions, they don't feel over-faced, and actually end up eating more because they clean their plate and ask for 'more'. I mean REALLY small portions. You can always give more along the way. And that way there's less waste too.

[michaeljacknnugg]

Glad it's easily sorted! These kids like to keep us on our toes, eh?

DS will eat an adult sized breakfast but then smaller lunch and dinner. They're all different.

[Eva's Mummy]

You ladies are fantastic thank you very much xxx

[Joy-filled]

I'm sorry to hear things have still been so rough with E's eating but if she's a healthy weight then she really must not need more. 

It's amazing how different LOs are.  Reading this thread shows me that A eats a TON compared to most!  For example, he will eat 1 cup of oatmeal with ground almonds in it for breakfast, 1/4 cup of veggies for snack, 1-1.5 cups of rice/bean/hummus mix for lunch, 1/2 a sweet potato with some veggies for afternoon snack, and then about 3/4-1 cup of bean soup with veggies and avocado chunks on the side for supper!  And I BF 4x/day!  You'd think with all that food he'd be HUGE, but he's in the 25th percentile for his weight!  But ever since he was born he'd just drink and drink, draining my breasts every single time so I had to supplement.  Even then, I had to cap him at 40 oz of mixed pumped milk and formula.  He was just a huge eater and still is today, yet his weight is perfectly normal.  I wonder if LOs just have vastly different metabolisms just like adults?  When you were struggling with E's sleep you'd often include how much milk she drank when you wrote your EAS and I was always amazed at how little she drank compared to A.  I think the fact that she's always been a small eater, even when she was only on formula, probably confirms that she must have a slower metabolism and not really need that much food.  She is a healthy weight right? Do you think she perhaps just has a slower metabolism?

[Eva's Mummy]

Eva would never eat all that, i guess they are all different. She was always a small baby 5lbs 8oz so tiny when she was born. She is tall and skinny, 99th percentile for height and 10th of weight but she is healthy and full of energy. I cant believe you used to cap milk at 40oz and i thought Eva was doing well with 20oz when she was little :-).

I was right with the teeth though i can feel all 4 molars coming through so we'll just see how it goes. Roll on all 20 teeth being through x

[michaeljacknnugg]

Not surprising if she's getting them all at once, poor love. I found loads of stuff easier to fathom once teeth were out of the list of potential causes.

[Eva's Mummy]

Oh honestly i cant till they are all through. The only time i can tell she is teething is when she wont eat, which has been months and months with the occassional good few days here and there. At least she doesnt cry or wont sleep, infact she sleeps more when she is teething. At least now i know they are coming through i will make sure she gets meds before meals.