Hi All,

I am new member to this forum. I have a 23 months old son. He doesn' t wanna eat anything.He doesn' t like anything. When i forcefully try to feed him he just spit out .He is doing like this since he was 15 mnths old. Earlier everybody was saying that it' s a phase & will pass soon. But i am facing this problem for the last 8 mnths. I don' t know what to do. I concerned with Dr ...he did blood test & all ,everything is normal. he said anyhow we have to feed him. Me & my husband tried all the different foods...everything but.....he just eats 2-3 spoon & starts refusing to take more food.
His weigh is only 17 pound.I am totaly frustrared now .He doesn' t take milk & not eating anything he just have few cookies & chips etc.
I know nobody can do anything in this situation but i am writing beause i want to share my pain.
He is very thin but very active.I am wondering from where he gets the energy. Jaya replied. Hi Priya,

I live in India. My friend is giving a tonic called Alfa Alfa tonic which increases appetite and immunity. I think it' s a homeopathy medicine. Please consult Ur doctor for the same and search in google before trying the medicine. I myself not convinced giving the medicine to my kid because I have not consulted my doctor for the same. When I asked once to my pediatrician he suggested Zincovit multivitamin syrup and told me that zinc will induce appetite. I tried. But it never gave a result but still I am giving it to my kid since it' s harmless and there are no disadvantages and it' s just a supplement. But I don' t know anything about Alfa Alfa tonic because I never tried. But my friend says it increased appetite with her baby and he is not getting cold and coughs now very often like he did before.

Your kid may not be eating because he has got some kind of aversion with food (May be because of prolonged forceful eating) Consult Ur pediatrician about this also (ask him whether it' s a behavioral issue).They me knowing how to deal with such kids and give us some tips.

Sometimes u need to consult many doctors to get into the root cause of the problem.U can suggest to take up Urine and stool analysis for clearing out suspicions of gastritis.

My kid eats less compared to other kids and also little bit underweight.
so we give him high calorie foods like egg,cheese,Full fat milk,ghee with rice,banana etc...

Even though i am vegetarian i am planning to give non veg to him after some time. U can give an egg daily to ur kid on various forms. Also milk can be given with choclate flavours since ur kid likes cookies and choclates.

Regards
Jaya
kruthi replied. hi
my daughter never ate well since her childhood.
How are your baby' s bowel movements?

Seeing what you had fed him when he was young, i feel may be too many items for a small kid made him lose his apetite(which i also did when my daughter was 14 months old)/.

As he was eating fine, till 15 months, this is really a phase but it should not take 8 mnths to gain his apetite back.

The best thing i think, is to give him food 6 times a day only to start with so that the break during each meal will be more. I know at this situation, you will feel like feeding him more often.
but jus try the following way and see. PLEASE DONT TRY TOO MANY VARIETIES. STICK ON TO ONE PROPER TIMETABLE FOR A MONTH. THEN INCREASE SLOWLY :

6.00 - 7.00 Try to give milk -how much ever he can have.

9.00 - 11.00 cornflakes with milk(so that he can have milk with cornflakes), or some porridge (not more than 2 tablespoons)

12- 2.00 Rice with dal, rasam, curd(make sure he eats at least 1/4 quantity of the rice cooker cup before cooking rice).

3.00 - 5.00 milk or juice /anything of your choice.

7.00 - 8.00 again rice/ roti with veg and curd.

9.00 - 10.00 milk, if he is awake

try this. i have given you 1 hour because i dont know when your baby wakes up and when does he sleep.

i suggest you trying this which i think will be helpful.

Even if it takes 2 hours to give him rice and roti, do it.

Good luck and let me know if any improvement.

Rice is necessary for children because it is high in carbohydrates. You can give him roti in milk in the evening as a snack.

kruthi replied. Hi i too have the same problem with my 20 months old girl but mine is worse because she keeps getting throat infection every once in 2 weeks which stops her from eating anything- not even 50 ml milk the whole day. so jus imagine.

She was underweight since her 1 year and how about urs/ How was ur baby when he was small? Was he the same or did it start only after his one year. What were you feeding him before one year? I have got a vast experience in this as i am working and have been struggling with my daughter since 10 months now.

Let me know more details. then i can may behelp you.

BUT DO NOT GIVE HIM ANYTHING NEW WITHOUT DOCTOR' S CONSULTATION. I started my baby on high calorie diet which brought her weight downa nd up so many times. give me more details as your baby' s diet, time schedule, what do you give him. may be i can help.

SK replied. Hi,
I have a 2yrs+ old daughter.She is a picky eater too and was worried verymuch abt her diet.I tried out so many different and new tasts hope she would like but everyhting went futile.I tried to coax her into eating sometimes it worked,sometimes don' t.I consulted her peadiatrician and he suggested me to give her pediasure which comes in diff flavors.To cover up all the nutirents.I recommend you to try pediasure ,it will surely helps and also avoid giving cookies n snacks before feeding him food.which is very bad it will cut down the appetite.I can understand your pain,I had gone through all this n used to cry whenever my baby refuses to eat.But you need to be more taxing while feeding a fussy child. Jaya Jeganathan replied. Hi Priya,

I have a one year and 2 month old son. He was fine till i breastfeed.When we introduced bottle feed he started protesting and his eating habits changed.He refused each and everything and started vomitting.We used to distract him whil feeding so that he does not have concentration on food. (We will play TV or Computer games or some musical toys).Till now the same is happening.He is also underweight.But hyperactive.It takes around one hour for each feed.Sometimes more than that.Doctor says some kids are like that. It has become a routine for my baby.Can' t change it till he understands that we need to eat.But i feel in your case you can request the doctor to prescribe some medicines which induces appetite.One of my friend uses that.U can give that for a week and try to make him eat.Then slowly he will start taking.But still i feel u need to talk to doctor about this whether we can give medicine or not.

Try that distraction techniques we use.Try to understand what he likes most.Feed him that time.Having fussy children definitely we need to have lot of patience.

All the best..