Relaxing about how much they eat

welly01

I guess I need some encouragement today.  We did BLW and DS has always been a good eater.  He is not very picky.  This weekend (all weekend) it seems like he just picked at his food.  I know their appetite will go up and down and I shouldn't stress over a few light meals.  DS is already on the skinny side and I just feel like he should be gaining more weight.  I don't want to start the cycle of encouraging him to finish everything on his plate but DH and I both caught ourselves doing it this weekend.  It is SO hard to not comment on how much he's eating.

maybebride

Your son is about the same age as mine and we have been battling this for a couple of months now. It isn't a consistent thing. Some days, he eats great for every meal. Some days, he barely eats at any meal. Most days, he is hit or miss and eats one good meal, one good snack, and the rest is iffy. And we also did a version of BLW, so that was quite a shock after having a kid who would eat pretty much anything we put in front of him. But, really, it is just the age.

I don't push it at any meal. If he picks at breakfast, I assume he'll eat better later in the day. If he doesn't, he usually eats fine the next day. He drinks plenty of milk and we still nurse. I will say that if it has been a couple of days of crappy eating, I will make a point to have a meal that I know he LOVES to "make" him eat and sort of "jumpstart" his eating again.

We don't have a weight gain issue, so that might be different for you, but remember that they are not supposed to gain as much weight so fast in the second year, so I wouldn't worry unless our doctor was worried.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

erinmc1

My 16mo son is in the 1st percentile for weight, and has been classified as failure to thrive.  We just got blood work done last week to find out if there was a medical reason for his inability to gain weight, but everything came back normal, so the doc says he just needs a lot more calories.  He eats really well and variety of things, but he wants to feed himself almost exclusively these days, and throws a portion of every meal to the dog.  He's teething 2 year molars, and that can throw off his appetite too.  And yes, it's stressful when he won't eat, or eats little, knowing he NEEDS those calories.  We give him Pediasure 2x per day, and that extra almost 500 calories has made a huge difference.  He gained almost a pound in just over 2 weeks.  

If you're concerned, talk to your ped, and see if something like that might be beneficial to your son.