Spinoff to eating - anyone's toddler have a decrease in appetite?

We decreased Cailen's milk intake because we realized he wasn't really eating that much. He is still a bruiser, and people think he's chubby, but I know his body, and see he slimmed down a lot. In fact, I am seeing a lot of muscle start to form, which is so cute....

I am not concerned because he doesn't seem hungry or affected by how little he eats, and I think a lot has to do with growth spurts, but there are days when the only thing I can get him to eat is strawberries and peas. In fact, those are his "go-to" foods. If he won't eat anything else, I know I can get him to eat those, and blueberries. Also, he likes string cheese and American cheese, and occasionally yogurt. He can eat an entire avocado, and hummos.

He also likes veggie hot dogs, and pasta, but it depends on how hungry he is. He would never eat a whole bowl of pasta - i mean, a baby bowl, not a grownup bowl. He likes mac n cheese too - but never a whole bowl of it....

I would say, realistically, when he eats with me, I can get 2-3 good bites out of him before he is "done" and playing with his food. Once in a while he is starving and eats a whole veggie hot dog (and those really have no calories in them!) and almost always, he will eat a whole avocado...

He won't drink juice, which is great. HATES ice cream, cookies, anything sweet, which is also great. He stopped eating cheese crackers - goldfish, mac n cheese crackers, etc, which he used to love. He doesn't really "snack."

He really is a healthy eater when he does eat. I grew up with a family that was crazy about food and other people's eating habits, so I don't want to put that on him. I feel when he's hungry, he will eat - but does this sound unusual to anyone? I read what you guys post about how much your DCs eat, and I'm floored!!!!

Message edited 8/26/2008 10:55:13 AM.

Re: Spinoff to eating - anyone's toddler have a decrease in appetite?

Ha. I was just going to post this. Christopher has been eating A LOT less the past few days. He has been eating like 1/3 of what he was eating for a while.

Last week, I chalked it up to teething, but I don't know what it is this week.

Christopher does snack, but not a ton, eats goldfish and stuff...but usually half of a take and toss container or something like that.

Re: Spinoff to eating - anyone's toddler have a decrease in appetite?

Chris has days when he eats a lot and then days that he eats hardly anything

I gave up being frustrated with it and i just hope he gets some nutrients from his milk and vitamins

Re: Spinoff to eating - anyone's toddler have a decrease in appetite?

Jayden has been eating less over the lat 2 weeks. I think it's bc his molars are coming in. He'll only eat soft mushy stuff, so it's been pretty much only bananas, chewy cereal bars, oatmeal, pasta, applesauce and mandarin oranges. We also had to cut back on his milk intake, but somedays that's all he wants.

Message edited 8/26/2008 11:14:49 AM.

Re: Spinoff to eating - anyone's toddler have a decrease in appetite?

It's normal after a year of age for the eating to slow down a bit. Even though they are busy, they aren't growing as fast so they don't need as many calories as they did when they were babies.

Re: Spinoff to eating - anyone's toddler have a decrease in appetite?

I know how you feel...

I think in my case, I just have a picky eater. My DS eats hotdogs, chicken nuggets, French fries, Pasta (with sauce or in broth) Pancakes, Cheerios, Scrambled eggs, bananas, watermelon, peaches, bread...He snacks on cheerios, goldfish and applejacks.

What kills me is that when we go out to a restaurant he'll only eat french fries. The other week we went to a 1st birthday party which was at a restaurant and they gave him chicken fingers and fries...what did my son eat? the french fries. Everytime we are at a restaurant all of a sudden he won't eat the chicken fingers or the pasta. Yet at home he will. When he is next door at my mom's he'll sometimes eat pasta with escarole with her. Go figure...

Like your son, mine also hates juice and all sweets such as cake, cookies, icecream. But he will eat a potato chip... But it's not like he eats a lot of them and he never eats a whole bag of chips. I make sure of that. The other day the icecream truck came up our block and I got a chocolate cone and DH got a milkshake. I offered some of my icecream cone to DS and I was very surprised when he actually took a bite. Normally he turns his head away...

Re: Spinoff to eating - anyone's toddler have a decrease in appetite?

Some days Jack will eat anything and everything I put in front of him, others he can't be bothered.

Re: Spinoff to eating - anyone's toddler have a decrease in appetite?

Most of the time DS hardly eats anything. He has a wide variety of things he likes and will always eat any fruit or veggie in front of him, but hardly any meat if any at all. Most of the time he takes a couple bites and thats it and then plays. He has the occassional snack, but nothing big. His daycare sheet always says "some" next to his lunch. And he's a munchkin, between the 4-10% for weight. Now and then we do get a day where he gobbles everything in sight, but it's not the norm. But he's active and healthy and doesn't look emaciated and drinks all his milk and gets his vitamin, so we just let him eat how he wants to. Maybe if he actually stops when he's done, and we continue to foster that, he won't become fat and develop bad eating habits like other people in our family.

Re: Spinoff to eating - anyone's toddler have a decrease in appetite?