So, all of Tru’s life I have felt quite at liberty to brag a bit about his good habits because, we all know good habits in a baby aren’t going to last so we might as well enjoy them while we can. For instance, when he was a newborn he never cried. He cried only a few times in the hospital (like getting circumcised – ouch!!!) but then we came home and it was literally DAYS before he cried again. I was worried he had something wrong with him. He would start to fuss and I would leave him to work himself into a cry and he just never would. Well, naturally we joked about it; the Embryologist left the cry function out when they injected the sperm, hahaha. But eventually he learned to cry and he is quite fluent in “cry” now. Quite, very, astoundingly fluent. So I guess I should have known that his good eating habits couldn’t last forever but he has been such a good eater since day 1, it just seemed like he was a hungry boy with the healthy appetite of a man and that was that.  He ate so much that I know he ate more than me at some meals. He ate until everyone around us freaked out and told us that maybe he didn’t know when to stop. He was going to barf for sure!!! But no, he never barfed from eating too much. He NEEDED that much food.

 

The last few months have changed all that. It started when Tru began eating less at his meals once he switched from purees to table food. But the pediatrician assured me that it is normal for babies to start eating less as they hit toddlerhood. Their caloric needs are lower and the amount of food they need will adjust accordingly. No big deal. Tru would still eat every kind of food we offered him. No pickiness. Nowadays? That’s a different story. He either pushes away every food we offer him or he takes a bite and immediately spits it out. It doesn’t matter what food we try. All his favorites are promptly spit out. There have been a few meals that he only ate just a few bites of food and then he was done. Mouth clamped shut, hand in front of mouth. Nothing going in there. I read some pediatric website that said not to force the issue. If they don’t want another bite, it’s time to be done with that meal. Offer more later. But what if he eats 5 bites at supper and goes to bed an hour later and never eats another bite the rest of the day? Is that ok? It doesn’t feel ok to me. But what can you do short of force feeding him which wouldn’t work because he would just spit his food out even if you could cram it in that little mouth.

 

He is taking his bottles of milk still but not as much as before as even his milk intake has been cut back by him. I have tried mixing his milk with melted organic coconut oil to bring the calories up since coconut oil is a healthy fat and 1tsbp is 120 calories of pure healthy fat. But he doesn’t like his milk warm and coconut oil hardens when cold.

 

I’m definitely seeing some texture issues going on too. I think that he generally still likes most food though but it seems like he has no appetite. I know there was some study done (not going to try to dig it up right now) on low zinc levels and lack of appetite. Just not sure on how to get his zinc levels tested or if zinc levels ever are tested or how much to supplement with a baby vitamin. The liquid vitamin that he is on now doesn’t have zinc in it.

 

One last little thing, he had his iron tested and it came back low at 10.6. I am not at all happy about that. I can’t help him eat more iron rich foods when he’s not eating. His iron has never been low before so I have to assume that it is low now because he isn’t eating enough of the right foods. His liquid vitamin also doesn’t have iron in it which I don’t understand. Maybe it’s because iron can cause constipation or something. Tru could use a little constipating here and there though as ever since he started on milk, things have been a little on the loose side. Not that I can get anyone to tell me what to do about that. Should I switch him to Lactaid milk or put him back on sensitive formula? I just don’t know.

 

Sorry this is so long. If you read to the end, bless you. I just needed to get it off my chest and hopefully we can come up with a good game plan on how to proceed from here and how to keep him from eating even LESS! I guess our “My kid is seriously the best eater ever!” bragging is over. At least for now.