One year old stops eating most solid foods

[Ruthie]

Help - I have a one-year-old son, who until a couple of weeks ago ate very well - vegetables, meat, pasta, fruit, porridge, bread, dairy. Then one day he suddenly refused to eat almost everything, except for bread, fruit and porridge (as long as it has a banana in it). I am most worried about his refusal to eat meat, and don't want him to end up with an iron deficiency. He will not even let me approach with those foods, I think he can smell what it is and then won't even look at it. He is drinking two bottles of 240ml of formula a day. I'm worried that he is not receiving enough nutrition. What should I do?

[fbsurvivor]

Is your son typically fussy/high needs?  I haven't had any personal experience with this, although, I know that w/my daughter if we try to push anything, it pretty much ends up with blatant refusal.  So, if she doesn't want to eat something we just back off.  We recently started toilet training and she seemed into it, and then she started having negative reactions to it, so we've just stopped pushing it.  2 weeks is a while, though.  Do you think it could be his stomach?  I know that at 1, our pediatrician said to switch to cow's milk.  Since formula has more nutrients than cow's milk, maybe switching to cow's milk would encourage your son to eat other foods for nutrition.

[Hollyadmin]

Have you asked your dr about this?  I would definitely want to make sure he is otherwise healthy first.

That said, this is VERY typical of this age group. Both my kids did this.  The types of food they would eat from about 10 months-2 years was extremely limited, and they ate only tiny amounts. With my daughter, I was worried she wasn't getting enough nutrients, so I supplemented with Pediasure at night. I'm pretty sure now that wasn't necessary. Both my kids were 100%+ in weight, so I needn't have worried, but I did.

Lots of times babies eat a lot in their first months, then when they start crawling, walking, and discovering the world, food is much less interesting to them. It's like they pack on the weight at the beginning, and then life is way too exciting to stop for food, so they scale WAY back. My daughter ate yogurt, pudding, toast and avacado for months. That's ALL she would eat.

I asked a nurse about it once, and she gave me great advice that I still use: It's your job to present a variety of foods to them (in small amounts, so they're not everwhelmed), and present them in an appealing way (colorful plates, cut out shapes, etc.). It's their job to eat'.  Dr. Karp says the same thing: You can't make a kid eat. All you can do is offer them a variety of healthy foods and the rest is up to them. I'd avoid force feeding or even feeding them at all - what I mean is present them with the food, and it's his job to eat it. At meals, let him eat off your plate even if he wants.