My son is 2 1/2 years old. He has been broken from the bottle for about 5 months & has been feeding himself finger foods since he was 18 months & at 2 he began using a fork & spoon to feed himself. All of the sudden about a week ago he REFUSED to feed himself ANYTHING at all. No fruit, no pasta no sweets. I can leave the food in front of him for hours & he will not touch it. But if you pick it up & give it to him in his hand he scarfs it down or if you put it on a spoon & put it in his mouth he opens up for more. I don't want to begin spoon feeding him again after all the time & effort I put into getting him to eat on his own & i know they say a child wont starve himself but he literally refuses to feed anything unless I hand or spoon feed it to him. The doctor said to just leave the food & eventually after a day or so he will eat but he hasn't ate in 6 days & cries of hunger but will not eat!!! but the doctor says he's ok & to continue?
No I do NOT force him to sit at the table for hours. He sits as long as I do. When he chooses not to eat [which is every time] I place the food somewhere within his reach but he still refuses to eat. Every doctor I've spoke with said this "appetite slump" IS normal & that if he already feeds himself finger foods & spoon feeds himself DO NOT return to feeding him myself.
get a new doctor. it sounds like he is regressing. and he is at the age where there could be something neurological going on. has he changed in any other way? will he look you in the eye. does he stiffen out when you try to pick him up? there is no doctor who would say its ok if it has been 6 days since you have fed your child.
Do you eat together? My kids were always intrigued by what was on my plate, so I just let them eat my food and then added to eat as needed.
One ting my son and I loved to do was sit on the couch together, watch a show and enjoy a snack. I would make a plate of fruit or veggies or cheese and crackers. Sometimes I would tease him when he ate something, "Hey, that's my apple!" He would smile and giggle and eat something else. Of course now he's 5, and it's not as easy to get him to eat his veggies :-)
It might help to try some nontraditional ideas. Watching tv worked well for me. For breakfast I would sometimes give the kids Carnation Breakfast Essentials. They just think it's chocolate milk. You could try having a picnic in your backyard or in the park. Maybe say he has to take two bites and then he can go down the slide.
Are you saying your child has eaten very little? Or are you saying that he hasn't eaten one single thing in 6 days??? If the latter, I'd make sure there's nothing else going on!
If he's healthy and just being obstinate, then I'd investigate whether he's sitting too long at the table. You say "I can leave the food in front of him for hours" and I hope you are being figurative in that way, and not saying that he has to sit there until he eats. I'd offer small quantities of quite a few foods - a few berries, a few pieces of chicken, a bit of pasta, some vegetables, etc. I even saw something the other day that looked intriguing: the parent used an ice cube tray to put small amounts of so many foods in front of their toddler. No junk, but a mix of tastes and textures.
Sometimes kids go through phases. Are you eating with him? A lot of kids really love to see what you're doing. I think it's okay to make a little activity of eating. You can feed each other, for example - that way, he's getting some food and some attention, but he's also using his own motor skills to manipulate a fork or spoon so he won't lose that ability. Meal time has to be fun, not just a requirement to sit still and eat. Of course you want decent manners (no food throwing or tantrums) but if he uses his hands now and then, it's not the worst thing in the world.
Trust your gut. If the doctor says to leave him there, but you've done that for 6 days and nothing is working, change it up.
You can also try taking him to the farm stands to pick out foods. Get excited about where food comes from, show him berries growing on bushes or carrots coming out of the ground, let him help you wash things (even if you have to do it again yourself!), and let him help in small ways to put things on the plates. Then sit down and "mmm-mmmm" your way through the meal. Take away the pressure.
You can also try some different settings. Sometimes an outdoor picnic or even a picnic on the family room floor can intrigue a child. Spread out a sheet, put some containers of foods and some special plates, and so on. Try dipping - a lot of kids will try a food if they can dip it in mild ranch dressing or hummus. Make a design out of food - you've seen the pancake house put 2 bananas for eyes and a strip of whipped cream for a smile, so try some of those tips with other foods. I've seen people make faces out of vegetables, for example - a curve of red pepper for a smile, carrot coins for eyes, shredded lettuce for hair, 2 pieces of orange for ears, 2 pieces of broccoli for earrings, some green pepper slivers for eyebrows, and so on. Make eggs in a special shaper or even a metal cookie cutter. Cut sandwiches into shapes even if it means you lose the crust. Why not?
Do what you think is right.
Doctors say this to everyone. I think each child is different. My child would not eat much at all at that age. She still does not eat, so i would hep her (thankfully she is 30 pounds finally and she is almost 5). Doctors are so obsessed with the obesity epidemic they forget there are other people in the world.
He hasn't eaten food in six days? And you won't put a piece of food in his mouth to feed him because the doctor told you not to???
