15 Month Old Suddenly Not Eating/gaggin on Food

Updated on January 23, 2011
A.S. asks from Houston, TX
6 answers

Hi Mommies, My 15 month old was doing really well with table foods. He was really starting to push away purees unless they had a minimum of 1 1/2 tbs of cereal in them. Otherwise, no and even then not happily. He was eating eggs, cheese, cream cheese toast, cheerios, avocado, banana, melons, baked fishies, black eyed peas, peas, sour cream like a monster, sausage, and so on. Sorrry for the list, but here's the point. Suddenly, about two weeks ago, he started tapering off on all of it. He had been eating close to 500 calories in table foods a day plus about 16 oz of breastmilk/cow's mil. But then he just started slowing way down literally overnight. To top it off, my champion swallower (ALWAYS BEEN GOOD at this and never had an issue with gagging), started gagging on foods. He acts like he's hungry, and puts the food in his mouth. He either does alright for a few minutes and then then starts coughing, or he pulls it right back out with his finger. He now sometimes signs immediately at the beginning of the meal that he is done, before he's even had a couple of bites. Puree is next to impossible to get in him now. He will still eat pasta pretty well without too much coughing, but that's about it. This has been going on for right at two weeks now.

The dr. saw him yesterday and said he was cutting 3 molars and that his throat looked fine. Suggested that maybe it is just hurting his gums too much right now to eat. But then wouldn't he want the puree? He has the appetite because he jumps on the food pretty quickly. Has you baby done this? Does teething sound right to you? We were at my sister's when this all started happening (overnight) and her youngest (3 year old) has tons of small barbie shoes and stuff lying around... could he have one of those stuck in his throat??!!

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K.I.

answers from Oklahoma City on

sounds exactly as my baby............. I keep serving the same amount of food on her plate and let her eat what she want, she's very healthy and her weight is just fine so Im not worrie to much about it, plus she takes 24 oz of milk a day...( and about your tough of the barbie shoes keep that off your mind, I just to be like that too.... thinking what if, but believe me if something was stuck in his throat you wouldn't be writing this but in the hospital....

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M.P.

answers from Dallas on

I think your doctor is spot on. I just went through this with my 12 month old. He has been eating table foods very well since he turned 9 months and a few weeks ago just stopped eating almost all together. I felt around his gums and they were swollen in the back. Eventually, three molars broke through. He seemed miserable for nearly three weeks. I just kept him on liquids and continued to offer soft foods (like your little one, pasta was something he could tolerate eating) until he showed signs of wanting to eat. He is now back to eating like he use to.

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P.K.

answers from New York on

I would not even try puree anymore. I think it is very possible and very
probable that his mouth hurts. He can't tell you that, so his only way of
saying "please, food hurts my mouth" is to gag. See how things go over
the next few weeks. If it gets worse, contact your ped again. Toddlers
are quirkly little creatures. Keep us hopping!!!!

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N.J.

answers from San Francisco on

Just to let you know, my 15 month old suddenly started to not eat either. He's not gagging tho'. But he will sign very eagerly he's hungry, go crying to his high chair to get up. So I set him down, prepare his favorite food, only to have him take one bite and then say he's all done too! It's really weird because I know he's hungry. He's highly irritable, cranky and always asking for food. I took a look in his mouth yesterday & sure enough he's cutting all 4 of his eye teeth.

Luckily for me I didn't have him totally weaned so we are back to nursing more than I wanted to be, but it seems to be satisfying him some. So far he's up to eating apple sauce and most soft cereals like oatmeal. Maybe try something new and soften the harder foods, and maybe he'll regain interest. If not maybe some pediasure just to make sure he's got the essentials for the most part.

As for something being stuck I think he'd be showing a little be more signs outside of eating, but anything is possible. I would say if there isn't some kind of improvement in the next week go ahead and bring him back, and have him looked at again!

Good luck, hopefully its just a phase right :)

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L.C.

answers from Dallas on

When I hear a doctors response like this it makes me cringe! Let me start out by saying I AM NOT anti-vaccine.....But did your son have a vaccine recently? This happened to my son exactly and after years of research (no help from doctors) , my son was vaccine injured. He has sensory processing disorder and food textures are difficult for him. My son was 15 months when this happened and it happened exactly like you are saying. If you contact a good feeding therapist they can help you much more than any pediatrician. The doctors will make up excuses and have you wait and wait and then you have lost so much time waiting for NOTHING! Even if you do not think vaccines was an issue, your son can still have sensory processing disorder. You can google that and read about it. Carol Kranowitz has some good books to help you also.
You can email me anytime if you have any questions.
L.

M.R.

answers from Dallas on

I think your doc is spot on and that it's most likely to be related to the teething. Three molars is a lot to be cutting at once and that would create major drooling. Here's an article that says it's pretty common for "pooling saliva" to trigger the gag reflex.

http://www.whattoexpect.com/first-year/week-24/teething.aspx

Hope this helps you relax, Mama! =)

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