One year old has become picky eater!

Joy - posted on 12/03/2009

my son is 15 months old. he has 3 big sippy cups full of milk a day and still eats so it might not be the milk. i love that he still has milk as its so good for their bones and gives them a little fat etc. i have read quite a bit though that babies do tend to drop the amounts they eat between 12-18months old and that it is normal. My son used to be a huuuge eater and now he is more content eating smaller snack type meals but more often. he still has breakfast, lunch n dinner but his meals are a lot smaller and he fills up more on snack thngs like bananas and fruit bars and toast etc. just go with the flow,your baby will let you know if he is starving!

Emilie - posted on 12/02/2009

3 bottles a day, wow no wonder she's not eating. Are you give formula milk or juice or milk? Formula milk acts like normal food and fills them up so they won't eat anything else. If she's always had bottles she won't learn to eat food. You need to reduce the amount of milk and be patient with the food. She will eat it. Sounds bad but it's like training a puppy. They can't read our mind so it's a slow training process. They'll learn that this is the time to eat and this is what you have to eat, and if you don't eat it you are hungry before the next meal. But by the time the next meal arrives they will eat more of it becuase they're hungrier than normal. BUt then they learn that if the eat more of the food they're not as hungry, so the next meal is more successful becuase they know that this food fills them just like the milk bottle does. It's tough but don't give in by giving a milk bottle. Once the reach one they should really should be off the milk bottles, and be on foods and the odd beaker of juice/water.



Plus babies are always having phases, my daughter eats fine but at the moment she's off her food, I don't give her a bottle becuase she knows that food time is for eating. And usually you find that she is totally fine between meals, she just wasn't hungry that meal time. We all have days when we're just not hungry.



Make sure she doesn't become a lazy eater by giving too many bottles as well, becuase eating normal food is a lot of effort for a little mouth.



Sorry to waffle on, just got lots of experience as my daughter was a nightmare. lol

she will start eating again, if you just teach her that the food you give is what she has to eat, not the bottles.

Good luck

Amanda - posted on 11/30/2009

well I can understand that, my son won;t eat at all it's almost like having to force feed him. I guess i've been told kids won't starve themselves.

My suggestion is make a shake up consisting of bannana, milk mango and a supplement like s26 mixed it together in a blender and see how that goes.

Francesca - posted on 11/29/2009

Don't give in! My daughter went through the same thing but after speaking to my health visitor who suggested giving her what I want her to have and just taking it away and offering no alternative's if she refuses to eat it, after around 2 days she began to eat whatever she was offered and didn't fuss at all. She stll has a few days when she refuses to eat but a baby will never starve themselves and will eat anything offered if they really are hungry. Just a thought, but maybe three bottles a day are the reason your baby's not eating? If they are filling up on familiar milk then the encouragement to try new things isn't there.

Cornelia - posted on 11/22/2009

Dear Ashley,
I have almost the same prb as you are!My boy turn 1.4mths old now.he stop eating porridge since 11 mths.by sudden he refuses to eat anything except plain rice and pasta(the small pasta with star shape)..i dont understand why,but he loves it so much!.i tried to mix the pasta with nice cheese or cooked fried rice instead giving him plain rice.he will not eat it,doesnt matter how i try to make him eat that.its kinda frustration and the same time worried if he will get enough nutrients or vitamin.i keep giving him formula milk since its better for him.dont worry abt giving him the same foods as we're eating at home.as long its not sweet and high salt.cook something moderately.

Jael - posted on 11/16/2009

As long as she is being offered a variety of foods, it shouldn't be a cause for concern. If she is hungry she will eat what is there. If she doesn't eat what's in front of her at all after about 10 minutes give her some cheerios. Try sneeking some mashed bananas in with a plate of cheerios, or another food that's easy to sneek in. This is common, I have read up about it quite a bit but sadly this is all the knowledge I can give. Personally I have a child who now wants to eat everything in sight.

Cassie - posted on 11/16/2009

My son did the same thing! He ate great, would eat anything put in front of him until recently! I dont know if you ever tried waffles but that's something he hasnt given up...yet! haha I cut them up and put them on a paper plate on his hichair tray and he loves eating them! But I'm going through the same thing with him, I almost thought about buying him more baby food because I'm worried he's not getting all the nurtirents he needs!

Caryn - posted on 11/14/2009

Its pretty normal for toddlers to become very finicky eaters. Offer her finger foods instead of spoon feeding her. Toddlers love to self feed. Give her her own spoon to play with while she's eating, she won't be able to use it but by playing iwth it she'll eventualy figure it out.

She won't starve herself, so don't worry about that, she will eat when shes hungry and as much as her body needs. Remember that her stomache is only about the size of her fist so shes not going to eat very much, maybe even trying small snacks all day instead of 3square meals.