My son has stoped eating

[YungBully]

Hi my 16 mths toddler has gone to overseas recently with my wife and stopped eating from last few days, cant find whats problem, we been to pediatricians and they says he is allright, but still we are very concern about his need for nutrition. also he becomes very angry and annoyed....is there anything we could do to make him eat???????? please help us...

[Renee Radenberg]

Some children may change their eating habits from the change of routine and environment. This is a strange land to your child. Suggest giving him his favorite foods, if he will accept them, and try to stay in a routine similar to what you had at home as much as possible. Maybe the Child Behavior Forum may have additional information that may help you.

[bummedmom]

Will he eat anything?  Not even a favorite dessert?  Ice cream, cake, candy?  Just curious if he has completely lost his appetite, or is he just refusing the nutritious stuff? The reason I am asking is because if he has completely lost his appetite, I would probably be concerned too.  The only time my daughter completely lost her appetite was when she was sick with a virus and she wouldn't eat or drink anything.  But then again, it was obviously a virus because she was running a high fever.  However, a high fever isn't the only indication of illness. With that said, will he drink?  Is he drinking his juice and/or water to stay hydrated?  Or is he sticking solely to his milk?    The reason I ask about the milk is that if he is filling up on too much milk, it could be interfering with his appetite.  Milk is processed by the body more like food than a liquid, so it is quite filling.  Try cutting back on his milk if he is getting more than 16-20 oz a day.    Also, try offering his milk to him only after he eats his meals, and not before or during the meal. This might work. If not, don't get too alarmed just yet...All children go through phases of not wanting to eat.  Trust me, I've been through many phases in my short time as a mom with my two kids (I have a 25 month old and a 13 month old).  I noticed that my children typically eat a lot during a growth spurt, and start eating significantly less when they aren't growing.  Teething also makes a huge impact on eating.  Is he getting new teeth?  My daughter was still teething at 16 months, so if he still doesn't have all his teeth, that could be a possibility.  My son was a horrible eater when his two front top teeth were coming in and now that they came in, he's doing fine again.  He's not the best eater in the world, but he's doing ok.  My daughter eats a great breakfast lately, but lunch and dinner are like fighting a battle just to get a bite or two in.  Yet, miraculously, if she sees candy or ice cream, or anything she loves, she'll ask for it.  So, I know it isn't a loss of appetite...it's just a phase where she is refusing the good nutritious stuff and wants the bad stuff.  I don't let her get away with it.  What I do is this...I ask her if she wants candy, chips, ice cream, whatever I know she likes to eat, and then I tell her she can have some if she eats her lunch or whatever meal I am trying to get her to eat.  Sometimes, I give her a bite of the good stuff and then a bite of the bad stuff as a reward.  At your son's age, it might be easier to give him a bite of what he wants and then a bite of what you want him to eat.  My daughter loved rice pudding at his age.  I would often sneak peas or soft diced carrots in with it, and feed it to her as her meal.  It sounds kind of gross, but it worked.  My husband always gave me a weird look when I did it, but I told him I had to do what worked, and it did.  She liked her "ice cream" as she called it, and never complained about the peas or carrots I snuck in.  Another thing you might consider is giving him finger foods.  Has he completely refused finger foods too?  It might be a control issue.  My 13 month old has to have his own food to feed himself while I shovel the real stuff in.  I often give him a bunch of cheerios on his tray and let him munch away while I spoon feed him his real meal.  Sometimes I give him crackers, bread, whatever I know he likes to feed himself.  That's about all I can recommend as far as tricks go.  If that doesn't work, and you are worried about nutrition, try mixing some pediasure into his milk.  I do that with my daughter every now and then and she doesn't seem to mind it at all.  Actually, I think she likes it better.  I buy the vanilla flavor, and I'll typically put half pediasure and half milk into her sippy cup, and give her the whole thing over two sittings of drinking milk.  If your son doesn't like the taste, you may have to start doing less pediasure and more milk, and spread it over more sittings.  The only precaution I have with this is that the pediasure is a high protein drink and may be very filling, thus continuing his lack of appetite for real food.  I guess if you only give him one a day, then this shouldn't be too bad.  At least he'd be getting his nutrition.  Another thing you could do to ease your mind about nutrition is to give him a multivitamin.  I give both my 13 mo old and 25 month old half of a flinstone vitamin every morning.  My 2 yr old can chew it on her own, but I crush up the one for my 13 mo old and put it in his food.  Of course, that would be difficult for you if your son isn't eating at all.

Sorry for the long post.  I can just sympathize with you.  I've been through this a lot with both of mine, and understand the frustration and worry.  If you have tried cutting back on the milk and using the "tricks" I mentioned, and he still continues not to eat anything at all, and seems to be losing weight, I would definitely pressure the doctors to examine him more closely.  I don't have a clue as to what it might be from a medical perspective, but I am a firm believer that we should never brush our concerns under the rug simply because a doctor who doesn't see our child on a daily basis says he looks fine.  I actually switched pediatricians recently because when I mentioned to my former pediatrician my concern about my son not eating and only gaining half an ounce over 3 months , she winked at me, pinched a little fat on his arm and said "It doesn't look like it's hurting him".  Well, just because he is pudgy from when he was eating well, and has room to lose a little weight, doesn't mean he is getting his nutrition, or growing properly!  I was infuriated with the brushing away with my concern.  Don't let your doctors do that to you.  I'm not telling you something is wrong, but definitely go with your gut instinct in determining whether you think it is just a phase, or something to be concerned about.