3 Yr Old Not Eating....

This is pretty normal. As long as she is growing and has energy to play she is fine. Keep offering healthy food and she will eat when she is hungry.

Believe her. And then observe her.. Remember the heat can cause less appetite and more thirst. This is normal. Just give her small health snacks.

She is human. Some days I am not very hungry. I just want juice or fruit..especially when it is super hot outside. Yesterday it was 103 here.

Yesterday I was not feeling great, so I snacked every once in a while. Sure enough at 11:00 pm, felt horrible, vomited.. Had to lie down.. This feeling Did not pass till about 2:00 am.

I hardly ate anything all day.

Updated

Believe her. And then observe her.. Remember the heat can cause less appetite and more thirst. This is normal. Just give her small health snacks.

She is human. Some days I am not very hungry. I just want juice or fruit..especially when it is super hot outside. Yesterday it was 103 here.

Yesterday I was not feeling great, so I snacked every once in a while. Sure enough at 11:00 pm, felt horrible, vomited.. Had to lie down.. This feeling Did not pass till about 2:00 am.

I hardly ate anything all day.

My pediatrician told me that kids control how much they eat and we adults control what they eat. As long as the few bites she's getting are the healthiest choices possible, don't worry too much.

My kids loved the Morningstar hotdogs. They are vegetarian and loaded with protein. They are healthier and the kids never knew the difference.

I suspect she is probably a "drive by" eater- she grabs a few bites of something as she is on her way to something more fun. Rather than looking at what she eats in a single sitting, consider the day as a whole.

Totally normal! Most kids are grazers at that age and like to eat a few bites every couple of hours.

Trust her if she says she's full. Kids know how to listen to their bodies. Too bad adults don't always remember.

I would offer her more fruits and veggies and try to relax.

Is she constipated? IF not she's in a slump, not currently having a growth spurt. In a few weeks she start eating and eating and eating, chub out a bit then wake up one morning to shorter pants and a taller thinner body.

If she is constipated and is not hungry because her body has no place to put the left over food not used then she needs assistance in getting the pooh out...lol.

The heat also has a lot to do with it. A lot of kids only want to drink fluids when it gets warmer.

Those few bites are doing their jobs. She just needs you to check the bigger picture and to determine if this is a health issue or a growing issue.

Is she losing weight? Is she irritable? Is she pooping and peeing?

Her stomach is only about the size of her fist.
It doesn't take much to fill her up.
It's so common for moms to get alarmed about eating between ages 2-3.
Their growth rate slows down a lot.
In the womb they went from single cell to 5-10 lbs in 9 months.
Once born they roughly triple their birth weight by their first year.
Learning to walk and growing to toddler size take a lot of energy.
But now her growth rate will settle down a bit and it doesn't require as much food.
She will have growth spurts and there will be times when she eats more.
In the mean time just make sure what she does eat is balanced nutritionaly with plenty of fiber.
Along with all that slower growth, keep in mind she has teeth coming in and it's not uncommon to start up with tonsil/adenoid issues and ear infections are always possible too - and those can affect her eating as well.

Sounds like a typical 3 yo. Usually just a phase. Just keep track of what he eats, but do not make a big deal of it.

Sounds like my 3 year old, some days I wonder how she has all of the energy she has considering how little she eats. It's who she is, she's healthy, active and smart, no reason to panic if she's moving forward.

normal. the less attention that you give to this the better. if you try to beg plead and coax her to eat.. you will have a power struggle on your hands -- if you just let ti go.. she will eat when she is hungry.

is she loosing weight? if so see the dr today.

if she is just being fussy.. ignore and she will start eating when she is growing and hungry.

As others have said, keep a COMPLETE food diary... including what she drinks, and how much.

You may find out that she is filling up on juice and milk...... yes, some juice and milk is important, but if you are giving her juice every time she is thirsty, she is getting lots of calories from that.

She also may be snacking a lot during the day..... if that is happening, it isn't bad, as long as you keep it to healthy snacks... but chips, cookies, granola bars are lots of carbs, and not really good food.

I would also talk to her doctor once you have a good food diary of what and when she eats.

My son went through a phase like this. It didn't scare me at all though because he was healthy, strong and active. It's amazing what children can survive and even thrive on!
I would cut out the mac and cheese and the goldfish though. Don't say "oh it's better than nothing." It's actually NOT better than nothing, unless the mac and cheese is homemade with real cheese. Those foods fill her tummy but give her NOTHING nutritionally. Let her be hungry enough to eat real food, she's not going to starve.

Keep a food diary so you can see exactly what she is eating.
Write down everything you give her and the times.
I bet you'll find that she is snacking between meals.

A little more info would help here.

Some kids have issues with texture. Have you introduced new foods and perhaps she doesn't like the texture?

Is she filling up on stuff with little nutritive value (snacks, crackers, cheerios, juices, white pasta)? Is she filling up on milk? That can make her feel full and even bind up the intestines so that there's not as much absorption of regular nutrients. Is she overwhelmed by the quantity on her plate and she just can't make a decision, so she's opting out?

Is she bored and wants to get down and play?

How often is she eating? She should be eating 5-6 times per day, not necessarily "full meals". Every meal/snack should have a protein source and some fiber. A slice of apple with some peanut butter, a piece of toast with almond butter, mac & cheese (make with part tofu and/or butternut squash pureed into the cheese, don't give her the boxed stuff), etc.

Is she urinating and defecating normally? If she's not having a bowel movement every day, there's either not enough fiber in her diet or not enough water, or just not enough nutrition overall.

Did she just finish a growth spurt during which she was eating ravenously, and now she's leveling off? Is she just hot because of the weather and not exercising/playing actively?

You can also add tons of vitamins and easily absorbed protein/nutrition with a patented supplement (not gummies, not chewables, not pre-mixed liquid) to be sure she's getting all her nutrients, and then just continue to present a small amount of varied choices throughout the day.

I think the answers to these questions will help guide you. Let me know if you want to follow up.

Good advice from others about keeping careful track of her food for a while and finding out if she's really eating more than you realize; it's fine if she's a "grazer.".And always, always talk to your pediatrician sooner rather than later when you have a concern. I would add: Consider how much she drinks each day and what she drinks. If she is drinking a lot of anything other than water, she may be filling up on liquids and therefore not feeling hungry when it's meal time. Milk is healthy but very filling, and juice is mostly junky (yes, even 100 percent pure, real juice -- it's natural sugar but still sugar, and makes kids feel full very fast; apple juice is the worst offender and our pediatrician says it's nutritionally useless). So consider her liquid intake as you examine what she's eating.