Please give the confidence to see this through...

[squeaky's mum]

Hiya,

Over the last couple of weeks Sophie's appetite has gone down dramatically. In the last couple of days it has almost disappeared completely. I am sure this is only a phase coinciding with a little bit of teething, a cold and her first ever sickness. So its understandable but dh and I are struggling to not make it an 'issue'

I know that a child will not starve itself and that if I offer Sophie some food and she refuses it, I should just take it away and wait until her next meal. But it is far easier to say than do.

Please give me a nudge in the right direction and help me to hang on in there until this phase disappears.

Before this she has only ever been fussy when she's been teething

Thanks

Claire

[squeaky's mum]

Just seen the support thread for picky eaters. Will check it out.

[* Paula *]

Hugs Claire,

We have been going through the same sort of thing.

My DS has always been a very big eater, not so much on his milk, but when we switched over to Cows Milk he loved, it.  But he has since been really poorly lately - been on antibiotics 9 times in the past 4 months or so.

His appetite has decreased dramatically, and it is heart breaking to see as you know what they are actually capable of eating.

If DS refuses his meal we dont make a fuss of it at all, and offer him something else i.e. a yogurt etc and small snacky things.  Today has been one of those typical days, and I am worried as he has hardly eaten anything at all. 

Over the past month or so, he has even started refusing his milk in his bottles and won't drink it out of a sippy - we are trying our best to get as much in him as possible.

I know that it is hard, and wanted to send you some hugs as i know what you are going through.

Paula x

[andibig]

Hugs Claire
I think a lot of mums have been through this. so easy to worry when they have a dramatic decrease in appetite.
DD can be like this and shes usually a good eater. like the pp said we tend to offer DD snacks etc. for us we don't mind doing this as we don't think we are encouraging her to be a picky eater as generally she eats so well.
i suppose some days all she wants to do is snack during the day and others shes happy with 3 big meals (well 2 reallly she tends to be quite snacky at lunch ).
if DD tends to have a few days of snacking then we usually take it as a sign to try new foods (tend to get stuck in a food rut sometimes LOL) and for some reason this works with DD to get her interested in food again.
we've also had a few temper tantrums at mealtimes when she was younger and we would just get her down from her booster seat and take it as a sign that she wasn't hungry.