15 month old will not eat

I look after a 15 month old who refuses to eat.  His mother told me at the start that he had problems with reflux as a baby and through weaning and so had a bad relationship with food from the beginning.  I myself have a 7 month old so I suggested we start weaning again while I did it with my dd so I could get some food into him and find out what he likes.  To begin with it was a struggle to even get the spoon in his mouth, but once he tasted the food he would eat the lot.  2 months on and I have introduced lumps to his food, which was hit or miss whether he would take, but he still will not take finger foods.  And this week he has refused all foods completely.  We have tried leaving him to eat and not offering anything in between, knowing he'll eat when he's hungry.  I've tried him eating with the others, eating with my dd (who is eating finger foods now and feeding herself with a spoon at 7 months), I've tried various different foods, different times of the day etc.  Nothing is working.  4 days on and he still hasn't eaten a thing.  His weight is fine - he is not underweight or dramatically losing weight.

I could use some tips, ideas and advice as to how to encourage him to eat and get interested in food.

[Renee Radenberg]

He may need to learn how to chew and swallow food. Some children just do not know how to do it and need to be taught. They need to learn how to chew and swallow food properly; it is not really an instinct behavior like sucking. Has he been evaluated on how to chew food? If not, then suggest he gets evaluated, by a MD, and start therapy so he can start to eat regular food.

[bexfreedom]

If needed get him checked by a doc (sure you know that anyway), but my baby is going through a similar thing at the moment. He has always had a nice appetite and started having solids at the “normal” age. He’s been feeding himself finger food for a while now but as he has learned to use the spoon he will not let me or dad feed him, he HAS to feed himself or he will not eat anything, Sometimes this is hard as I don’t feel he is getting enough but I’ve been told time and time again that if a baby is healthy and active they will eat if they are hungry. What I do give him if all else fails is kids yogurt and most times this works. This probably is not much help but if you go to Google and type in (what your child eats 15 months) it will come up with heaps of parents looking for help as there child will not eat either so maybe it is just a age thing or individual thing, just know you’re not alone.

[chel86]

Thank you for your comments.  He's getting on really well now.  I completely relaxed about the whole thing, sat him at the table with his food and left him to it with no interference.  Lo and behold I turned around after 15 minutes and he had a mouth full of scrambled egg!  He's still fussy over what he eats and there are days when he hardly eats a thing, But he's eating, that's the main thing!