Anyone have a baby/toddler that will not eat?

[Shakey]

I'm wanting to know who else is in this situation and has a baby/child that will not eat

My DD is now 14mths old, and does not eat a bloody thing, refuses all spoon feeds, and she "might" have a couple of nibbles on a sammy, or some fruit, she's souly(sp) living on pediasure at the mo, its the only thing thats keeping her going

anyone else with a child like this? or had a child like this? was there any medical reasons for your child having this? btw i'm not talking about the babies/toddlers that all of a sudden slow down in their eating for a few days, or the ones that just eat a little amounts, i'm talking about the babies/toddlers that don't eat anything

i'm at my wits end on getting DD to eat anything, even the speachie is throwing her hands up in the air lol, DD is a stubbourn little minx, and nothing, I mean nothing is going into her mouth or down her throat if she doesn't want it too

oh and while i'm at it, did your baby/child drink anything like water or juice, or did they have difficulty/or refuse that too?

[Nowhere]

Hey there, yes my DD does not eat anything she is 100 percent tube fed into oher intestines

There is a web site calles www.infantrefluxdisease.com its a reflux web site and there are lots of tube fed kids on there, there are a few that are what we call tube grads, meanin they are no longer needing there tubes, and eating oraly, there are also some mums on there of preveiuos none eater that would only drink bits but avoided tubes they also have heaps of idea

(mods its a oked link, there is a link from bubhub to IRD)

[reAllytee]

*raises & waves hand wildly* :wave:

I just started a thread the other day on it also !!!!

I too dont have the regular 15mth old who has just slowed down etc but the one who has never eaten much at all & honestly survives on air !!!!!

G is on Neocate because he has issues with LI & cow & soy proteins, as well as sugars in fruit but he has GORD ( reflux disease ), extra long colon & slow motility so it all which he has meds for.

We are lucky though because whilst he has been on an NG at 7mths we got him back taking the Neocate orally so all seemed fine. Thing is he would just drink water & not care iykwim. Its like he never feels hunger.

So as I said we are very very lucky that we have fought off intervention but I am really worried because our next weigh in is in a few weeks & I know he hast gained so they wont be happy :crying:

[Shakey]

Thanks Amy for that link, will check that out

DD will now take from the bottle, has been for the past few mths, but we still have the odd bottles where I have to just about pin her down to get the pediasure into her, in some ways I think having the hg tube down her would be so much easier to get it into her, but having a ng def has its cons though

Ally, thought you might pop your head in here lol, I kinda wish there was a "reason" for DD's not wanting to eat, but we havn't found one yet, like squeak she's never been a big eater, from day one she was never demanding with her feeds, would easily go 5 or so hours without a feed as a new born, and even now, she doesn't fuss for food :no:

do you guys have any hints or tips in getting water into her? she's starting to get a bit dehydrated with having all these hot days, i've noticed her nappies are definatly not filling as much or as often as they should, so I really do need to get water into her

[reAllytee]

See I was lucky with G in that he would watch Boof & mimick iykwim so thats how I started getting him to take water but thats only been the last month or so.

Have you tried cordial ? Just thinking maybe there is a flavour that will grab her but if she is like G nothing will :rolleyes:

I managed to get half a cup of food into him today & that was my letting him cruise along the lounge in front of me ... Oh well suppose that may be the way ?!?!?!

Yep that was G too in regards to often sleeping 6hrs between feeds, when he was awake he would scream which I would assume was for food but he never wanted it .... This was all due to the issue with BM & 'normal' formula.

Have they looked into that with her ? I mean have they looked at yeah ok if it isnt reflux maybe its an issue elsewhere ?

Or let me guess they are saying " behavioural" :rolleyes::geek::banghead:

[Nowhere]

Thanks Amy for that link, will check that out

DD will now take from the bottle, has been for the past few mths, but we still have the odd bottles where I have to just about pin her down to get the pediasure into her, in some ways I think having the hg tube down her would be so much easier to get it into her, but having a ng def has its cons though

there are HUGE cons of NG tubes and they actualy can make oral eating worse beleive it or not as they are so god dam intrusive that they maye oral avertion even worse, they also hold the stomch open slightey wich can cause vomiting, As long as she is taking a bottle and not dreadfuly FTT i would avoid a NG tube for as long as possible, We went to a tube becuase miki was not taking anything I was feeding her with a tiny syringe around the clock every 15 mintues i would sneek some in each time she would choke and spluter and then she would puke it out, In hine sight we should of agreed to a tube sooner but wanted to give it a real go KWIM

Ally, thought you might pop your head in here lol, I kinda wish there was a "reason" for DD's not wanting to eat, but we havn't found one yet, like squeak she's never been a big eater, from day one she was never demanding with her feeds, would easily go 5 or so hours without a feed as a new born, and even now, she doesn't fuss for food :no:

do you guys have any hints or tips in getting water into her? she's starting to get a bit dehydrated with having all these hot days, i've noticed her nappies are definatly not filling as much or as often as they should, so I really do need to get water into her

With a syrgine have you tried sneaking in 10 mls her 10 mls there, could maybe make a game of it, will she take icey poles if so could make some water ice pops or some kids juice ones

[Nowhere]

just a thought have the drs done a gastric empty9ing study on her to see how slow her fast her tummy empties if not might be an idea, Im asuming speechies have done video swallows and stuff

[bossoflatch]

im on the other spectrum .. my dd wants to eat everything but cant :crying:

she will go weeks with shoving food in her mouth - she can phsycially eat it.. as in puts it in her mouth .. chews.. swallows then she starts vomitting and gagging and then we are off food for months..

Shes turning 2 in jan and i worry .. shes surviving thanks to elecare.which shes been on elemental formula since 6 months.. she looks great but its not until ppl see her puting the food in her mouth and then the process that she goes thru . what little food she gets in at times she gets bowel problems .. omg the screaming its horrible v

its frustrating with kids and gi issues.. perhaps your lo has a sore throat and it hurts to swallow? my dd knows now that food hurts but she forgets and give it a go every few months lol

fwit - my dd had/ had GERD and suffers with the acid reflux depending on the food .. she has protein issues that cause her excess acid production ..

[Missy75]

Hi Jo
Kai was exactly the same. Was she diagnosed with low muscle tone? You mentioned that she was slow crawling so I thought it might be the same as Kai. His paed said that the eating intolerence is fairly normal for babies with hypotonia. The low muscle tone can extend up into the throat, so they might feel as though they're choking when they eat. I've spoken to a couple of other mums who experienced exactly the same problems. He saw a physio and speechie for a long time too. I hate to say it, we had to just keep trying. I know how incredibly frustrating it is. :hair:

[Shakey]

Missy75 yeah she's got low muscle tone, but its getting better with the physio, it could be part of the reason

Ally i've tried juice, cordial, just about anything under the sun, she still won't drink it, a little bit will go into her mouth, and she'll just spit it out (well let it run out of her mouth lol) oh and yes, they recon its behavioural at the mo :hair:

bossoflatch your poor little girl, must be horrible for her to want to eat so much but can't, and very frustraiting for you

Amy no they havn't done gastric emptying studies or any videoing, will enquire about that tomorrow when the speachie comes round

[pinkgingham]

my DS went off food at 12 months. it has gone on for about 2 years now as he is now nearly 3 and only just started eating better in the last few months. DD is 17months and she is starting to turn the same way.

with my DS he just refused most foods and only wanted a bottle. there was no medical reason, he was just being a fussy little pain in the butt.

i could count on one hand the things he would eat so and lucky for me those things were healthy things like grapes and apples. but nothing else, no meats, no dairy besides milk and no pastas or anything.

i used to put an liquid iron supplement for kids in his milk as i was always worried about him not eating. it said on the bottle, "for kids that wont eat" so lol thats why i gave it to him.

in the beginning it was fussiness, then as it went on it became about comfort and even though he was hungry he relied on the bottle to satisfy his hunger when he could easily have something to eat.

the dr said just not give it to him and he will eventually be hungry and eat but it was like WW3 if i didnt give in to him and give him the bottle when he wanted it. but slowly and surely he is growing out of it thank god and is now starting to increase the number of things he will eat.

[UmmInayah]

My DD never ate. Ever. She lived on breastmilk until she was around 14 months old. I fell pregnant and my milk disappeared. I freaked out as she refused to eat, and I was so relying on her having breastmilk.

Just like your little one, she used to have very quick infrequent breastfeeds. I always feel like she doesn't fill her tummy enough, just has enough to take away the hungry feeling IYKWIM?

Anyway, slowly but surely she started drinking cows milk. She has about 3 glasses a day. But she still doesn't eat.

I started getting stressed and frustrated about it. She was skinny as it was and had dropped to the 5th percentile for weight from the 15th percentile. She was otherwise happy, alert, learning lots and meeting milestones.

Anyway, I tried everything. Letting her feed herself, me feeding her, offering only finger foods etc. But she never seemed hungry. I could leave her for 6 hours and she wouldn't say boo about food. She refused to sit in a highchair later on, so now I feed her on the run.

Oats were the only god send to me. She loved her porridge. If she didn't eat anything, I always fell back on that.

A couple of months later, she refused oats as well. She ate nothing, well it felt like nothing. She never had more than 5 teaspoons at a time of any food. She will happily open her mouth, but only for 5 bites/spoonfuls and then no more.

Anyway, I don't know what the point of my post was haha. But I just thought I would let you know you're not alone. :hugs: The other PPs have given really great suggestions and I hope you manage to work out what it is that is preventing bub from eating :(

[MagsMum07]

Hi every1! Its SOOOOOO good to have some other mums who understand how totally frustrating it is to have a child who simply wont eat and just isnt interested in eating :)

My son is nearly 14 months and has recently been diagnosed with "low tone" of his mouth muscles.. he rarely is even interested in eating but on the odd occasion he is interested he just wont chew or bite and just tries to swallow everything whole and then of course it hurts and he gags and then he doesnt wanna eat the rest of the day :confused:

Anyone else here with similar "low tone" probs?
I am lucky in that he LOVES to drink water and will have 3 x 200ml formula bottles a day (one of which we have started making 1/2 strength, so that he'll be hungrier for solids)

[deb1234]

my little boy wouldn't eat anything until around 13 months and then finally started eating regularly (more than once every 3 days) around 15 months. his main problem was that he is a boob addict, so just wasn't interested in anything else. now that we look back he never really put toys or anything in his mouth when he was younger either.

one way we could definitely get water in him was to give him a cup in the bath and fill it with bath water (or warm water), he would also suck on a face cloth.

good luck, i know how frustrating it is. :hugs:

[Shakey]

Hi every1! Its SOOOOOO good to have some other mums who understand how totally frustrating it is to have a child who simply wont eat and just isnt interested in eating :)

My son is nearly 14 months and has recently been diagnosed with "low tone" of his mouth muscles.. he rarely is even interested in eating but on the odd occasion he is interested he just wont chew or bite and just tries to swallow everything whole and then of course it hurts and he gags and then he doesnt wanna eat the rest of the day :confused:

Anyone else here with similar "low tone" probs?
I am lucky in that he LOVES to drink water and will have 3 x 200ml formula bottles a day (one of which we have started making 1/2 strength, so that he'll be hungrier for solids)

Hi there :wave:

My DD doesn't have low muscle tone, we think her problems are due to her being in hosp and having to be tube fed etc while in there, which has caused her to not want things in her mouth or down her throat (unless its her milk lol) so I know how you feel with the no eating side of things

we're getting there with DD now, she's slowly eating again, she's up and down like a yoyo though, one day she's really good and eats a little bit, other days its a no go with all solids :hair:

what are they doing to help your DS develop his muscle tone?