Author Topic: 1y old doesn't want to eat  (Read 1736 times)

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Offline Astridnatalie

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1y old doesn't want to eat
« on: February 17, 2016, 09:39:32 am »
Hi everyone,
First I apologize in advance for my english, I am Italian.. so please be patient with me if I don't get everything you write me!  ;)
I am the mom of Natalie, (1 year old in a week) she is a good baby, lively but I can say she belongs to the "manual" category too.
The problem is that she doesn't like to eat, she never did from the very start: when I breast feeded her she didn't care if I didn't have enough milk, she was good only eating a little.
Now that she eats solids sometimes it's very hard to have her eat at least half of her portion: sometimes she doesn't even taste her food, she decides she is not going to eat it and doesn't even open her mouth. She doesn't cry or yell (she does after a while), she just closes her mouth or pull her face away. I am pretty sure she must be hungry after 4 hours she didn't eat anything else, so.....what can I do? I have to say she always gained few weight (always the minimum), her father and I are thin, so it also has to do with costitution but her doctor told us to control her weight, so we can't allow our selves to let her skip her meals often!
I hope I've explained my self properly, but I'm available for any explanations. I must also add that we follow a routine that I can explain if needed!
Thank you very much for your help and suggestions!  :) ;)

Offline creations

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Re: 1y old doesn't want to eat
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2016, 19:31:50 pm »
Hello and welcome to baby whisper forums :)

I saw your routine on your other thread, I hope you don't mind I decide to post it here to make it a bit easier to refer to:

7 AM milk (sometimes in her sleep)
9 AM wakes up and activity
11 AM lunch (we have rice/mais/multicereal cream with fish or meat)
then activity
1 PM nap (usually 30 min or 1 hour if we are lucky)
after the nap sometimes we take a stroll outside or she plays a little until
3 PM when she has a smoothie (milk with apple, pear, banana and biscuit)
then activity again until
5 PM when she takes another nap for 30 min or 1 hour...it depends
after nap: activity
7 PM dinner
activity until
9 PM when she has milk and goes to sleep.

What strikes me about her eating routine is that is seems quite heavy on milk or milky foods (but that might be because you didn't detail dinner), this might have the effect of filling her up without her having a chance to eat the range of foods in a more grown up diet.
Is there a reason for feeding her milk at 7am in her sleep?  My first thought would be to skip that (I class it as a night feed as morning wake up is not until 9am) milk feed at 7am and instead give milk at 9am with breakfast at 10am or go directly onto breakfast solids meal.  At 1yo she really doesn't need a night feed and you are likely to see more calories taken during the day if she doesn't take milk at night.

At this age a regular food routine here (I'm in the UK) would be 1 or milk feeds (usually wake up and/or bed time although doesn't have to be), 3 proper meals (like you eat) and 2 snacks (a child's hand size of snack).  It seems to me you could offer food at more times meaning she can take a small amount more frequently.  A toddler's tummy is still very small which is why they usually have snacks even if adults in the family do not.
Based on your WU, nap and BT your routine may look something like this:
9.00 WU milk
10.00 breakfast
12.30 snack
S 1.00-2.00 nap
2 lunch
4.30 snack
S 5.00-6.00 nap
6.30/7 dinner
8.30 BT milk, brush teeth
S BT 9.00

I would probably expand the foods being offered.  Offer more grown up meals and finger foods rather than milky smoothies.
Make sure each meal time you are eating with her and try offering the same foods, some LOs are more interested in Mummy's food than 'baby' food.
LOs often eat more in the morning or early afternoon, so breakfast, snack and lunch are usually the best times to offer a range of protein, vegs and carbs, dinner in the evening might be a larger meal for adults but many LOs don't eat much at that time (if this is when you do your main cooking maybe you can save a portion to serve her the next morning at breakfast or lunch?).

At 1yo many LOs drop their solids intake and seem to have a phase of eating less so you might be experiencing a drop in solids even with her having never been that interested in milk/food.

It could well be that she has a small appetite because she is small.  My DS is also small, so long as they continue to follow their centile line on the growth chart there is generally no problem. Some people do need to be on those lower centiles for them to be included in the range of 'normal'.

I hope something here is helpful for you, and I must say, your English is great :)


Offline Astridnatalie

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Re: 1y old doesn't want to eat
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2016, 15:58:31 pm »
Thank you very much for everything! We are following this food routine as the doctor suggested because of her low gain of weight. I must say that sometimes if I don't offer her milk at 7 she wakes up and asks for it after 30 min or 1 h... so I don't know if I can skip that but I'll try! Maybe with these changes it will work better!  :) ;)

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Re: 1y old doesn't want to eat
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2016, 18:38:34 pm »
I would think if you put into place the other changes and keep the 7am night feed for now in the next week or two you would be able to successfully wean that night feed.  With the more grown up meals rather than lots of milk or milky smoothies she will likely get a better range of vitamins plus the additional calories during the day hours. At that point a gentle wean of the 7am milk will not feel like it's a big change. I would continue to give it until you wean then drop 1oz every 2 nights, this gradual wean means her body has a chance to take in more food in the day, it won't be a sudden shock for her, or you.  After a week or so the night feed will be gone.

Let us know how the food routine works out for you - good luck :)


Offline Astridnatalie

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Re: 1y old doesn't want to eat
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2016, 08:26:48 am »
Thank you! Reducing it day by day seems to be a good compromise! I'll start trying! I have another question though... what do you suggest to give her for breakfast/snack? I kept on giving her  milk first of all because the doctor didn't tell me to stop, but mostly because it's the only thing I am sure she'll eat, I am afraid she'll lose weight if I remove it, but  I'll also be happier if she'll eat more like an "adult" so I have to try!

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Re: 1y old doesn't want to eat
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2016, 10:19:31 am »
Not sure where you are and what types of foods you generally eat but there are a huge range of things you can offer for breakfast. Many people use oats porridge for breakfast which can also be made into a 'cake' to be eaten as finger food rather than spoon fed, I mostly served baby muesli to mine (mixed thick and served as finger food balls to be either picked up or stabbed with a fork to eat) and now he eats (no added sugar or salt) adult muesli which I soak in milk over night to soften the grains.
For quite a long time I served mine a 1 egg omelet for breakfast, this was on advice I gained on the BW boards, my DS was reluctant to eat a good amount of protein later in the day but amazingly he would eat an entire egg at breakfast time and didn't even complain that his muesli wasn't there!  Many LOs will eat things at breakfast which they are fussy over later on in the day, perhaps because they are very hungry at that time and glad to get a good meal :)
So breakfast ideas:
Eggs are great - omelete, hard boiled, scrambled, french toast (eggy bread, you soak the bread in whisked egg then fry), adding protein to your LOs diet would be great.
Sausages - although processed some of the better quality sausages are pretty good, some butchers will make up a batch of sausages for you to your request, with no added salt and with whichever cut of meat you choose, these are likely healthier.  If you didn't fancy the idea of sausages you could try making a kind of meat ball at home from fresh meat
American pancakes - made with fresh bananas in the batter mix or with other fruits added
toast - with spreads such as butter, pate, nut butter, houmus, cream cheese
bean burgers or lentil burgers, falafel type patties made from beans/lentils and veggies
...really you can offer anything at breakfast, fish, meat, veggies, it is up to you.

Here's a thread which has lots of finger food ideas for snacks
Finger Foods (6 months+)
I used to make batches of pancakes, mini muffins, bean burgers/patties, mini meat loaf/burger,  oaty chews and things like that, I'd freeze them interwoven with baking parchment so that they didn't stick together, then I could lift a couple out and they would defrost during the morning and be ready to eat (cold) at snack time or for picnic lunches.
If we had left over veggies from our evening meal I kept them in the fridge over night and served those up for snack the following day.
I also gave things like fingers of cheese, canned beans (such as pinto beans pre-cooked in water no salt or sugar added, I just drained them, used a portion for a snack and then used the rest of the can to make bean burgers or to add to stew for dinner etc).
Humous or other bean dips/spreads are easy to make if you have a blender and are a great source of protein too.
Fresh fruit is a super easy snack to offer too.

I know you are concerned about her losing weight, I would really think at this age the focus needs to be on adult foods, protein, good fats, a range of veggies and fruits so that she can access all the vitamins and calories a balanced diet offers.  I imagine she would put more weight on with the more grown up diet, she might also be more interested in the food if you try her with different things.