Food

Why do you think he's not eating enough?

Do you have a reason to think he’s not eating enough? Unless he’s dropping percentiles or you’ve been told by a professional he’s not eating enough it’s best to just follow his lead. Some days my daughter eats heaps and sometimes she’s just not that hungry, just like me.

try and give him little bits of things here and there to give him options

@Krystal some days he will have no breakfast, tiny amount of lunch and then no dinner. And then other days he might have breakfast and then nothing else maybe a small amount of dinner (like 2 mouthfuls) To me it just seems like not enough 🥲 I stress out

@Caley try speak to the doctors x

As others have said if not losing weight i would try to stress less. Do you offer snacks in between meals? Also its pretty normal for toddlers to only have 1 primary meal and only pick for the rest of the day

It was hard for me to decrease the amount of formula I was giving my son, but then someone said to me that giving formula is like giving them a very filling smoothie. So they are not very hungry for the next meal or in general. Im slowly decreasing the formla and now he has a 80ml/ 1 scoop bottle before nap and 2ish scoops 200 ml before bed and I saw a big improvement on his appetite

Also, common to eat at daycare since all the kids are eating the same thing at the same time. It helps if we seat on the table with them and eat (or pretend) to eat with them in case you are not already doing that :)

@Patricia thanks I will try this!

I have always sat with my son to eat meals which I think really helped him be such a good eater. He eats everything, I’ve always made it a fun experience and have pretend conversations with him throughout the meal. Some child find large amounts of food served at once overwhelming I have read. Do you use a separating plate as well? Maybe try small amount on a plate and add more as he finishes? When my son is teething his appetite goes down I’ve noticed x

My 20mo will sometimes decide he doesn't want breaky, will nibble lunch and poke at his dinner but then the next day he will eat everything in sight including the cat... I just give him a dose of vitamins daily to make sure he's getting those. There's formula for kids all the way up to 5 or 6, so if you'd feel better letting him have a bottle or 2 a day and can afford it then there's no problem :) If you're concerned about his eating have a chat with your gp or mchn and they can help you figure out if there's a problem and what it is.