15Mo Never Eats

Aack! This is the most frustrating thing when it comes to having children in my opinion. All three of my children barely eat. I wonder how they sustain life honestly. They just run run run!!! That being said, after having stressed forever with my first, my doctor finally told me that he is perfectly healthy, growing right on schedule and to remember that children have a way of eating exactly what they need as far as quantity. As adults we don't really have a shut off and typically our need to eat is based on love of eating therefore we eat too much.

If it will make you feel better, track exactly what she eats and check the calories. You will probably find that she is eating just the right amount of calories for her size. I wouldn't hold back on what she drinks, milk and juice all have calories as well and can make up where she might be lacking in food calories. Try things like vegetable juice as well. If all she will take in is beverages, maybe you just go with it ya know.

One thing I can assure you is, these eating habits are phases and all three of mine go a few months at a time barely eating then they eat like a horse. You can go have her measured at the docs. I am sure she is fine.

It's a phase. My daughter wouldn't hold still from the time she learned to crawl (about 7 months) until she could run (15 months or so). She's probably eating more that you realize, just little bits at a time. Add a good children's mulitivitamin (look for one with low iron to be safe) and she'll probably be fine. If she wasn't getting enough to eat, she would not be so active. When she asks for a drink give her water so she stays well hydrated, then offer a bit of food before you give her milk or juice. Pediasure is an okay alternative, too. As she gets a little older, she will be able to understand the whole sitting down as a family to eat deal. Bring her to the table with you when it's dinner time, but don't make her sit for longer than a couple of minutes if she's ready to run.

As far as sleeping, it's probably about the activity too. She's so busy, and her brain is developing so fast, that it can interfere with sleep. Just keep putting her back to bed the way you generally do. You may just have to ride it out.

Wow--there are potentially many layers to your baby not eating. Here are a few ideas to investigate further.
* How are her teeth? If her teeth are hurting from decay, it could effect her eating (but I doubt this is it)
* Does she breastfeed? Breastfeeding is okay and generally doesn't need to be limited.
* A lot of little ones won't eat when their fluids are high. The pediasure is probably a contributing factor. A chewable multivitamin would give vitamins without the filling milk based products.
* Check with your doctor (or a good website) about recommended fluid intake for that age. I think juice is limited to 1/2 cup per day. If she drinks juice that is watered down throughout the day, it is replacing food.
* Can't remember the dairy intake, but know that milk absolutely replaces food intake in children. Find the amount (breastmilk is excluded) and ty to limit drinks to mealtime. No carrying around a drink throughout the day, which may replace food.
* Lastly, if you find after the above she still doesn't want to eat, you might have her evaluated by a Speech-Language Pathologist or Occupational Therapist, someone who is trained in pediatric feeding. Sometimes the muscles in the mouth, or tongue movements, prevent a child from chewing and swallowing food safely, hence they don't eat. (I had one of these) Feeding therapy works wonders!
* I agree that her sleep issues may be from hunger, or from an overload of dairy.
Hope these ideas will help. Good job spending the time to figure it out.
A.

If you can only get her to eat on the run then don't give her things like noodles and crackers... give her high - calorie, high protien foods like meat, cheese, and beans. My 13 1/2 mo old LOVES deli meats and they are super easy to cut into small peices to give him. It's also super easy to cut a string cheese into small chunks and give him that. He has less patience for meals in his high chair lately and I have also found that keeping him in his high chair just long enough to give him his "real" lunch is enough for him, and I have found that I can easily sprinkle whatever over finger-foods I wanted to give him on the coffee table or on a kitchen chair and he will graze on it as he walks around and plays - its a great way to sneak in extra calories into his diet. I have also found that holding off on the finger-foods and drink before he gets his main meal for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, leaves him more willing to actually eat what I am offering. and then he gets those things AFTER he eats the main food.

Good luck getting your little one to eat, it can be really stressful, so I hope you find something that works!

This sounds EXACTLY like my son. He started moving and has never stopped. He would sometimes go days without eating hardly anything and I was so worried and frustrated I'd want to rip my hair out. He is now 3 1/2 and, though his eating has gotten better, it's still a struggle to get him to eat more than a couple of bites before he's off and running again. I realized over time that his body was taking in exactly what it needed and as long as I continued to offer him healthy snacks and meals I was doing my job. You CANNOT force an active toddler to eat....it just doesn't work. I actually found that if I forced him to sit and eat he would rebel against me and completely stop eating for the rest of the day. He's healthy and our pediatrician is not worried. I just try to keep easy, fast foods around for when he is ready to eat. I also give him Pediasure and yogurt drinks for days when he is more "on the go" than usual. Good luck and try not to worry yourself over it too much. I know it is a natural thing to feel like you "need" to feed your child, but sometimes backing off a bit does wonders.

K.

P.S. Another thing I did was to load a drawer that he could reach with healthy snack foods and the bottom shelf of the refrigerator has a muffin tin always stocked with various fruits and veggies already cut up and ready for little hands to grab. There's nothing wrong with snacking throughout the day....it's actually healthier and some kids (especially very active ones) just don't feel comfortable eating larger portions all at one time. Let your daughter guide you!

You'd probably really appreciate the book "My Child Won't Eat!" published by La Leche League. It was published a little over a year ago and it's a very helpful resource for how to break out of this cycle and also know when it's honestly not a problem. (Often, babies hitting major developmental milestones do not sleep as well as we think they should because they are so busy, busy, busy processing everything. Growth spurts also make long stretches of sleep without another nursing or snack of some sort hard to come by.)
You could order it through LLL at their online store at www.llli.org, or call your local LLL Leader (you can also find her at the Web site under "resources/find local contact") and she probably has a copy of this book in her group's library you could borrow for free. It's definitely worth a look.
Best wishes!

My little guy did this too when he started walking. I just supplemented his diet by putting formula in his milk. Don't worry about it too much. She's just more interested in walking right now!