Well ladies after 18 looooooooong and very stressful months of Thomas refusing to eat we have a break through!
In the last 3-4 weeks he has finally begun to try new foods, no longer throws food on the floor, sits nicely at his table to eat his meals and is generally just starting to eat more than fishfingers, oven chips and yoghurt
I don't know if it's because Hannah now eats the same meals as him? or because his communications skills have come on leaps and bounds? or he is just generally getting a big boy? but the everyday, three times a day battles I have had for the last 18 months are finally no more
Don't get me wrong he still isn't the most adventurous eater but we try a new thing 3-4 times a week and we are slowly and surely building on the list of meals he will eat now. Although he eats brilliantly with a spoon and fork, he still isnt keen on meals with rice or mashed potato etc or anything too wet/saucy but he will at least try things now.
Some of you will remember me posting on 'another site' when Thomas was around 9-10 months old about how he literally just stopped eating over night. He refused EVERYTHING and I tried every piece of advice I was given by you lovely ladies, HVs, Docs etc and it just didn't work. I eventually managed to get him to eat yoghurts and progressed to oven chips, fishfingers, cheese on toast and garlic bread
and I swear he ate nothing but those things for months and months on end. As you can imagine it upset me to the max, I would read online about other toddlers eating loads of lovely healthy foods and trying allsorts of exotic meals and literally cry that I was feeding my baby what others called 'junk food'. I tried and tried to to introduce new things and he would scream the house down if they got even within 6 inches of his mouth. Anything he didn't recognise would be instantly thrown on the floor and tantrums thrown. I tried staying calm, not offering alternatives (he went 3 days on only yoghurt once
), feeding alone, feeding at the table as a family, new plates and cutlery, t.v. on, t.v. off etc etc and nothing made a difference. I tried hiding veg etc in things like pizza sauce and mixed with cheese on toast but as soon as he saw anything unfamiliar he would completely freak out. The only way I managed to get any fruit into him at all would be innocent smoothies and ellas kitchen pouches (both which he would have when HE decided - not me
)
Anyway - fast forward to last month and all of a sudden one day he decides he wants a bit of something off my plate. To say I was shocked was an understatement, he stood there and let me feed him some of my pasta and I thought somebody had swapped my child. I didn't get my hopes up too much but he started to do it more regularly that week so I thought ok, I'll put something new on your plate and see what happens - low and behold he sat nicely and ate it. So over the last few weeks I have been offering him all sorts of new things and he has tried each and every one. Some he finds he likes and some not so much (fair enough - I don't like every food out there myself so don't expect miracles). We are now at a stage where I can sit him and Hannah down with a fairly healthy meal each and he will eat/try all of it (Hannah is a different matter - I swear she would eat Thomas if he stood still too long
) they have fruit and/or vegetables with every meal in some form and he will eat some of it. He doesn't get a yoghurt/pudding/treat if he doesn't make a decent effort at his food and he understands and accepts this.
I cannot even begin to describe the relief this has brought. I stopped posting about his issues a long time ago as it would upset me too much and felt that I was wasting mine and your time by asking for advice that I knew just wouldn't work. I now look forward to meal times - they are a pleasure and we can take the kids out to eat all over and they are brilliant. I actually feel like we can be a 'normal' family now whereas before I spent most of my days worrying over whether Thomas would care to eat anything today or not
.
The point of me posting this essay is for anybody else out there that may be in a similar position to where I was and to say there IS hope. People kept telling me it was a 'phase' he was going through and just stick with it but tbh 18 months is one hell of a long phase! I don't have an answer for you because I genuinely don't know why he has all of a sudden changed his habits - I think it's maybe down to a few things rather than one reason but just know that
you aren't alone, you're not a bad mum, your child isn't weird and it's nobody's fault! Anybody who finds themselves in a similar situation to mine please feel free to ask advice on here or pm me. I can't give you an answer but I can give support so don't be affraid to ask. I have felt so alone with this 'problem' for months and I know exactly what you're going through.
xx
well if someone wasn't too busy having a life to keep me ammused I wouldn't have to sit here writing essays to while away the long childless saturday hours!!! 
I have also tried everything in the book now and have actually give up and what do to you know he's eating 
I can look at a whole days worth of intake which does mount up nicely and I can clearly see what he's eaten in the whole day rather than getting stressed about the fact he only ate one carrot at tea lol 
