Eating Habits?

tetiananina · May 2013

This post is for a friend of mine. Her Lo is 20 months old. She's always been a great eater and ate everything. Lately she's not been finishing her meals and that was never the case. My friend wouldn't worry but her daughter has Such a fast metabolism and is so active they are concerned about her weight gain. She is the 94 percentile in height and 11 in weight. She does organic foods, healthy but now she won't even finish half her plate when before she would devour all her food? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

FmrAFBrat · May 2013

DS has been from 0-35 percentile in weight & 60-90 percentile in height, so getting him "thicker" has always been a challenge. He has always been a great eater. The pedi finally got off of my case when they noticed his height was increasing more than average (he was 30 inches at 9 months). I don't do 100% organic, but I try to do dairy, meats, & certain veggies at our house. The Yo Toddler yogurt is organic and has whole milk. You can also get organic whole milk. This will help increase her calorie intake. I know a lot of parents do regular yogurt, but that tends to be fat free or low fat. DS also likes snacks like string cheese, crackers, fruit, & cookies. Sometimes if he doesn't eat a meal-I'll try to supplement later with snacks. He's not a big veggie lover-so that's my big struggle. I would suggest trying smaller meals & snacking through out the day for her.

Karen1998 · May 2013

Is this a short time problem or a long standing one? If it's something that she's only been doing for a week or two, then it's probably just a phase. Toddlers are notorious about doing crazy food phases. If it's something that's been going on for months, then it could be something different. However, if she's growing and on the mark developmentally, it's probably nothing to worry about.

One thing I've noticed with my kid is that if I put it on a fork, he's way more interested. It's bizarre. He just loves using utensils, but isn't as great at spearing things with a fork, so things on a fork are prized. I also have to watch his milk intake as he'll sometimes fill up on milk and fruit and avoid eating anything else. I'll also negotiate foods with him. He pph loves fruit, so I'll give him half what he normally eats of it and say, "You can have more blueberries once you eat your meat" or something like that. He usually wants more fruit, so he eats the other stuff and then asks me for more fruit. I typically don't negotiate to get him to eat veggies, as he loves those, too.

It's also really common for toddlers to slow their weight gain, stall it and sometimes lose a small amount of weight due to being very active. My LO has been stuck under 27 pounds for 4+ months now. He's nearly 100% for height, but fell (he's gradually been dropping percentiles on weight) to 45ish% on weight at 18m. He's crazy busy. He's also gotten taller since then, so I suspect we'll fall another weight percentile range or two at his 2y appointment.

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