13 Month Old Daughter Refuses to Eat Solids, Only Wants to Nurse.

I had this problem with my DD. I have to agree that until I qiut nursing almost completely, she didn't eat a ton of solids. Luckily, breastmilk is full of nutrients! She did have some favorite solids though (quartered grapes was one) that I gave her all the time so that I could get her fed some solids because she really wasn't wanting to stop nursing. It also helped when I added story time to our nap and bed routine because she got such a great bonding expirience out of that, she quit relying only on nursing. I hope that helps!

My 16 month old started that about 2 weeks ago or so. He is very good natured and was suddenly mad and cranky all the time. Went from sleeping through the night to up all night nursing again. He normally has a HUGE appetite. We thought maybe it was an ear infection, but it turned out he was teething. His molars- all 4 at once. I think part of it was the pain of eating made him want to nurse, but also the comfort and closeness of mom. Now all 4 have poked throught the surface and we're slowly getting back to where we were. I wouldn't recommend giving up nursing until you are ready.

My daughter was cranky for 6 months straight when she was getting teeth- even if you can't see them they can still be working their way to the surface and painful-- good luck K

I have heard of other children behaving this way when they are teething. Has she gotten her one year molars yet? Those take forever to come in and that may be why she wants to nurse and not eat food. They also hurt the most to come in. Try giving her Tylenol, baby Orajel or teething tablets to help her. Also try teething rings or a frozen washcloth to chew on. My son wouldn't use a teething ring until his second molars came in, so even if your daughter didn't use one before, maybe she will now. Good luck!

It might be PARTIALLY a bonding issue, but apparently ALL toddlers turn to milk at that age. I can't remember where I read it (sorry!) but research has been done that shows a majority of breastfeeding 1 year olds' nutrition comes from breastmilk. THE SAME IS TRUE OF FORMULA FED 1 YEAR OLDS. Apparently, formula fed 1 year olds go through a solids strike as well and start replacing solids with more formula/milk. I thought it was interesting!

I think maybe that's what your daughter may be going through too! HTH's :)

Did you just go back to work? Maybe this is her way of dealing with that. Or she just wants to nurse a lot. It's not candy :)
It's so healthy and filling she doesn't need any food right now. Children don't starve themselves so when she's hungrier she'll have some table food. I would just offer it at every meal and she'll eventually eat. I wouldn't withhold any nursing sessions. She might be thinking that if she eats then she doesn't get to nurse??? I don't know if that's possible but maybe. Who knows how much they understand. My son is 9 months and likes food but could easily not have it and just nurse full-time. Actually my 2 1/2 year old could probably do the same.....It's probably just a phase. Follow her lead. I'm not one to force food on kids, you want her to develop healthy food choices and/or habits so I think making mealtime a pleasant experience is a good thing. Not, "eat this or you're not getting up, etc." If they're done, they're done.

There is a great book by William G Wilkoff, MD called Coping with a Picky Eater that every parent or provider of kids should read and have a copy of. http://www.amazon.com/Coping-Picky-Eater-Perplexed-Parent...

This book has what I call the Picky Eater Plan. I have used this plan with kids that literally threw up at the sight of food and within 2 weeks they were eating normal amounts of everything and trying every food.

First you need to get everyone who deals with the child on board. If you are a provider it's ok to make this the rule at your house and not have the parents follow through but you wont' see as good results as what I described up above.

The plan is to limit the quantities of food you give the kid. When I first start with a child I give them literally ONE bite worth of each food I am serving. The book suggests that every time you feed the kids (breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner) you give all 4 food groups. So, for lunch today I would have given the child one tiny piece of strawberry, one spoonful of applesauce, 3 macaroni noodles with cheese on them, and 2 oz of milk. Only after they ate ALL of what was on their plate would you give them anything else. They can have the same amounts for seconds. If they only want more mac and cheese, they only get 3 noodles then they would have to have more of all the other foods in order to get more than that. If they don't eat, fine. If they don't finish, fine. Don't make a big deal out of it, just make them stay at the table until everyone else is done eating. BUT make sure they get no other food till they are sat at the next meal and they only get what you serve. When I first do this with a child I don't serve sweets at all. So no animal crackers for snack but rather a carrot for snack. Or one of each of those. I don't make it easy for them to gorge on bad foods in other words. Now if they had a meal where they ate great then I might make the snack be a yummy one cause I know they filled up on good foods.

Even at snacks you have to limit quantities of the good stuff or else they will hold out for snack and just eat those snacky foods. I never give a picky eater the reward of a yummy snack unless they had that great lunch prior to it.

It really is that easy.

It's very difficult to feed real food and nurse. Very confusing for baby. You have to stop one completely. When she's hungry, shell eat. You have to be the strong one and not give in. A couple of days of hell will probably be in store for you but the outcome is usually always good.