A friend of mine daughter who is 18 months just started not eating about 3 weeks ago. She drinks milk and just and just started eating lil bites of like pizza but not anything else. The doctor told her that it was ok as long as she is drinking. If anyone has had this happen let me know.
My son is 3 and for the past 6 mos has eaten little to nothing each day. He drinks a few glasses of milk and a few glasses of juice, eats a hot dog or a few nuggets, a few green beans, daily vitamins, and that's about it. He is in at-home care, and will eat there more than for me -- argh! But... kids won't starve themselves, just continue to offer little amounts of food with each mealtime.
Frustrating and good luck:)
My oldest daughter went through this too. The doctor is right. As long as she is still drinking milk, she will be fine. Babies go through phases and they are scary to us moms when something is different, but the phases pass. She'll start eating again, and it would be a great idea to offer her healthier choices right now. Since she's not eating right now anyway, your friend has a graet oppurtunity to shape her daughter's mind to expect a variety of good sources of nutrients. They can't eat what they don't have, so stear her in the right direction now and she'll eventually pick up on it for herself.
I think it's fairly common for toddlers not to eat very much. Both my children went through this phase. Tell her not to worry. Kids know how much they need. As long as she's making the food available, she'll be fine.
My daughter stopped eating as well. It turned out that she was getting too much milk and it was replacing her desire to eat a variety of foods. I gradually weaned her off of cows milk in order to get a wider variety of foods in her diet.
I was told that they have growth spurts and then slow down. It could be that she just got done with a growth spurt?
@ helen what type of milk do you use now?
Totally normal for a child to slow down and eat what looks like next to nothing to an adult. A child will not starve themselves either so no worries. She needs whole milk for the high fat content and you could even give her half a kids multi vitamin a day too. I know it's really hot out now and important to stay hydrated, but make sure she isn't filling up on liquids instead of food too. Too much liquid will spoil their appetite too. Just keep offering healthy foods and she'll come around when she is ready.
Get some pedisure to help fill in some nutrional gaps. Also a multivitamin. Kid might be teething or just going through a phase. Keep trying to push food and I use the pedisure for my non eater 2 yr old. She thinks just liquids will sustain her oi! Its a struggle but you cannot fore a human to eat no matter their age
