18 month and still a terrible eater

[Eva's Mummy]

I dont know what to do with her. The only foods she will eat is cereal, pasta with mascarpone and tomato sauce, fish fingers, peas then snacks like fruit and raisins.

I have been trying to offer other foods for months but she will just point blank refuse it. I dont know where to go from here.

[anna*]

Most 18 month olds are fussy - it's adaptive and evolutionary so they don't go wondering off and eating whatever is in their path. Eat as a family whenever you can, offer health, balanced meals, and let her eat or not eat them. If you always revert to the favourites, she won't try anything else. My son is 6 and has had salad on his plate at about 4-5 meals per week at home since he was a year old - he's only just started to eat raw salad leaves, but they are normal to him to see on his plate because I serve everyone the same meal

[creations]

I agree that familiarity with the foods being on their plate really does help, as does giving what you eat. There are so many foods I wouldn't have thought a toddler would eat so if I fed him separately to the family I wouldn't even think to cook those foods but I make them for us (myself and DP, sometimes guests) so DS is served them. As a result I discovered he likes sprats, mussels, smoked mackerel, rocket and other salad leaves, raw red onion, spring onions, olives...it really surprises me.  There are some things however that he still won't touch so we keep going with the offerings.  And another list of things I've gradually talked him into - home made fish fingers which he wouldn't touch to begin with and now loves (the fish fingers I was buying weren't actually that bad in terms of ingredients but I like that with home made I can change the fish so he tries different types of fish).

[Eva's Mummy]

its depressing she is getting no better.I offer differnet veg with every meal and she wont even put them near her mouth apart from peas. She loves cheese but will eat nothing witha cheese sauce, meat is a no no. She still throws everything, even when i tell her throwing means she is telling mummy she is finished and i clear the meal away she carries on doing it at every other meal. I even try muffins and panckakes because if someone was to give her one while she was visiting she will wolfit down but if i make them so they are healthy she just squashes the cake into crumbs.

Also can i please ask about portion size for an 18 month old, what would you offer for breakfast,lunch, dinner and snacks and how much of each,i think this would help me to see if i was going wrong.

I feel really miserable every time mealtime comes along,i try not to show it but its driving me crazy. How do i make this little girl eat?

[anna*]

Is she gaining weight? Is she happy and alert? Is she making poopy nappies?

[Me.and.my.two.boys]

C is 6 weeks behind Eva I think but for breakfast he has porridge (about one ladle full, prob quite a lot for his age but he likes it) and I sometimes sprinkle blueberries on it. Weetabix he isn't too keen on but if I mix 1 weetabix with coconut milk (he's CMPI) he will eat it with fruit mixed in.

For lunch we usually have a picnic style meal (crackers, ham or cooked chicken, rocket, olives, peppers is his favorite but he doesn't tend to eat much of the peppers and rocket, just chews them and spits them out but I figure at least he trying them. Sometimes we have leftovers from the previous night too.

[Eva's Mummy]

We have plenty of poopy nappies, she never stops (ever), and not sure about her weight i havent had her weighed in ages. She is thin though, she needs 9-12 month skirts or they just fall down.

Today Eva has had 2 spoons of weetabix, a small piece of cheese and 1/4 of an apple. oh and 2 bites of DH's toast.

So how many crackers would C eat and how much ham/chicken, would he then have fruit or something afterwards? So does he eat a full cooked meal at dinner time? 

[creations]

Is she still having milk? How much?

Toddler portions are very small, smaller than most people expect them to be, but even so it does sound like she has eaten very little based on what you said she had today.  Have you had her checked over by a GP? When you say she poops all the time, is it reasonably formed or small amounts of loose poop, have you had her checked for constipation?

WRT size and clothes, it's not usual for slim toddlers to need smaller sized clothes, at 2yo mine was in 0-3 month and 3-6 month trousers which stopped at the knee like long shorts.  He is 3yo now and in 18 -24 month trousers with adjustable waist taken just about all the way in, plus sometimes a belt.  He looks totally in proportion and has no weight issues, he also eats a lot so it is not lack of calories.

This is a guide to toddler portions but I stress it is only a guide and 'toddler' is a very wide range of ages/sizes (for instance mine would be classed as many more portions of fruit and veg and not enough protein and I've always tried to increase protein aiming for 1 portion per day rather than 2 as he used to have 1 portion maybe 2 or 3 times per week instead of daily)

milk 4 servings, serving size = half cup milk or yogurt or 1.5oz cheese, 1" cube
grains 6 servings, serving = half slice bread or quarter cup cereal/rice/pasta or 3 crackers
fruit 2 servings, serving = quarter of fresh fruit (or a handful, LO's handful not yours)
veg 2 servings, serving = 1-2 tablespoons
protein 2 servings, serving = 1 egg or 1-2 tablespoons meat/fish/poultry/beans

[Eva's Mummy]

she does still have milk. She has 6oz on WU then 8oz at BT. As for the poop she maybe poops 4/5 times a day and its generally quite loose and very smelly. If she was constipated would she not be pooping at all, she doesnt seem to have a problem pooping.

do you think its worth getting her checked out then?

[Me.and.my.two.boys]

I took a pic of Corey's lunch today for you. He is eating now but won't finish it.

One boiled egg, one slice of cooked ham, one small cracker and 5 olives

I will let you know how much he eats. For breakfast he had 1/2 slice of whole meal toast with Brussels pate and he munched an apple but didn't eat too much of it.

Hes had one cup water with breakfast and will drink nearly another full cup now with lunch,

[Me.and.my.two.boys]

Sorry forgot to add the pic

[Hedgehog17]

As for the poop she maybe poops 4/5 times a day and its generally quite loose and very smelly.

do you think its worth getting her checked out then?

That's a lot of poop, which would suggest it's worth checking for a food allergy or intolerance, as she may be getting a sore tummy after eating which will put her off food even more (this was definitely the case here) 

[Me.and.my.two.boys]

I agree - C is similar age and he usually poops twice a day, sometimes once but mainly twice.

For his lunch, C left 1/3 egg, 1/3 ham, 1 olive and a tiny bit of the cracker. He ate all the yoghurt and 1/2 cup water. This was a good lunch for him

I agree that discomfort may be causing an issue - you could definitely take her to the GP. In my experience they are not great when it comes to these problems I would see if there is a GP at your surgery that has more experience with children as mine were really useless when Corey was small as being diagnosed.

[Eva's Mummy]

Thanks its good to actually see just what others are eating. Well so far today she has had 6oz milk on WU a piece of cheese the size of a £1 coin and a frozen yoghurt and some water. Everything else has been refused. I'mhoping she will eat some dinner tonight.

I have made an appointment with the doctor, its not until next Friday but its the first one i could get for the nice doctor who helped us when she was little with her reflux.

You have me wondering though as she has always been a bad eater but slowly getting worse, but we stopped the reflux meds a few months after she started solids. It was silent reflux so she was not actually sick.

[creations]

do you think its worth getting her checked out then?

I would.
Sometimes with constipation there can be softer poo pushing past a blockage so the bowel is not fully emptied at each passing.  No experience of this myself but I've read it here.  Oh, and then what passes can be more sloppy.

I would also ask for a referral to a ped dietician.  Lots of toddlers are picky eaters but she isn't taking huge volumes of milk instead of solids and the solids portions you are giving are really really low. If my DS was eating that amount I'd get a referral.