My 21 months child don't eat anything!!!

[annacbarros]

Hi, i have a daugther of 21 months wich does not eat almost never! She only wants milk, all they long. What can i do to make her eat food?

[dkjokisch]

It's probably not what you want to hear, but limit the milk.  You'll probably get a few tantrums in the process, and it will probably take a few days of reduced milk intake to get her to eat food instead, but if she's getting all of her calories from milk, she's not going to be hungry.  You can either give her water instead or if she's really insistent, water down the milk you do offer.  I would not offer juice as an alternative, as you'll have the same problem there, and juice has pretty much no nutritional value.

How much milk does she consume on a daily basis, and at what times of day?

[taygensmom]

I agree, you need to limit the milk to increase the solids. Where is she percentile wise for height/weight. If there are no concerns in this area I would most certainly limit the milk, and only present 30 min after each for for a limited time/amount.

[annacbarros]

  Thanks for the advises. When she is at home, she drinks bottles of milk all day long but at school they does not offer milk insted of food, and she eats better then home however it's too little. I'm afraid of limit the milk because she's low weight...

[binxyboo]

What is your typical daily routine, what times do you offer meals etc.? About how many oz is she getting a day? What foods does she eat in school?

Welcome to BW by the way!

[dkjokisch]

There's lots of other higher-cal foods you can offer.  Dd has always been on the bottom of the chart (and off the chart for quite a while), so we've been there.  Full-fat dairy products are good - cream cheese, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc.  An occasional ice cream doesn't hurt.  Other than that, foods like avocado, hummus, peanut butter (if ok with your ped at this age) are great for adding a few extra calories. 

[annacbarros]

I try to follow the school routine, where they try to offer simple meal like meat, rice, bean...
9:20 - juice
11:20 - lunch
15:20 - snack
17:20 dinner
 i don't know how to exchange oz to mL ( as i am in Brazil). When in home she gets 6 bootles during the day.

[Katet]

If she is having 6 bottles (guessing that is 8/10oz or 250ml approx worth) then I can understand why she wouldn't want to eat much.
At 21months many toddlers don't eat that much anyway & are picky, but if she fills up on milk then she really wouldn't want anything else.
You could try
watering them down - if it is the comfort part
only offering water for half of them to start with

The thing about toddlers is that they will never let themselves starve & they do regulate their appetite, so really it is about you saying 3-4 days of hard work & cutting back on the bottles to get her eating, or let it keep happening.
This may be a bit harsh, but I know a friend who was having problems with the bottle when her lo was 18mo & she just threw them all out one day & started with meals... It took 3 days & her lo hardly ate much, but by the 4th she was hungry enough to eat.
For what it is worth my 22mo can eat less than 1 slice of bread somedays & others eats much more.

[dkjokisch]

We do milk with meals (6-8oz with breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and I sometimes offer it with her afternoon snack if she didn't finish her breakfast/lunch milk.

[soph]

I just went through the exact same thing you are describing. I slowly diluted water into bottles, then cut back on bottles and offered water only with meals. I switched over to sippy cups and regular cups. I think the milk attachment had more to do with an attachment to the bottle, so we had to get rid of it. If I felt that if he ate a good portion of meal then I gave milk afterwards. Offer other dairy alternatives. Yoghurt, cheese, cream cheese on bagel. Yes, there were tantrums crying for 'baba' but your child will not starve herself. Even 6-8 oz with each meal is enough alone to fill your child up. We have been bottle free for one week now, and we now call it milk.