Grandbaby not gaining weight

[Zoe Girl]

My grandaughter turned 2 in October. She has always been small, but now she is not gaining at all. She is being a total stinker to my daughter about eating, eating just a little and then throwing it, not seeming to have consistent things she likes, getting distracted, etc. They tried to draw blood to see if anything is wrong but they couldn't get it, she was was fighting it and saying help. How horrible for mom!

Dad takes her back tomorrow to the chidrens hospital to get blood drawn so we can find out what is going on. My daughter is of course really upset, I am assuring her she is doing a good job. They offer GD lots of healthy food and options, but she is simply not eating enough.

[Teacher Terry]

Wow that is scary. I was a fussy eater and my parents basically just fed me the few things I liked. I hope nothing physically is wrong.

[sweetana3]

We had friends who were really concerned about their daughter's size and the doctor was too. Eventually it did turn out she was a tiny little girl and had apparently inherited her Dad's smaller size. They will get to the bottom of it.

Amazing that a 2 year old can keep all the adults at bay when having blood drawn. But I suspect they didn't have the restraints needed.

[Chicken lady]

I have no idea if this is relevant or helpful, but my dd2 fell off the growth chart when she was two. She was still breast feeding and basically just wanted to nurse enough to take the edge off her hunger and then go run around like a crazy creature again. She wasn’t much into food. We identified two salty, high fat with protein foods she liked - bacon and cheddar cheese, and insisted on her eating a little of one or the other before nursing - along with the calories in the snack, the salt made her drink more. That might work with any high calorie nutritional beverage, not just breast milk.

she grew up to be 5’4”

[Zoe Girl]

I am hoping too, she is naturally small but not gaining at all for awhile is serious. Her mom had a deformity in her colon and had 6 inches removed when she was 10, but GD is not showing any signs like her mom was.

I think they had a hard time getting a vein, and she has a lot of feist in her. The children's hospital people will be better prepared. My son had a really hard with blood draws, when he is stressed his veins are harder to find.

[happystuff]

Plenty of good advice already, so just wanted to say good luck and hope all turns out okay.

[Tybee]

I experienced this with both my son at that age and his son, my grandson, at 18 months. It was worse with my grandson and they ended up having to go to a feeding clinic for therapy. I don't feel they ever quite got the bottom of the problem, but my son did do feeding therapy with him for a year and he is okay now at 5, small, but okay. I am so glad they are getting medical attention for her, really important.

[CathyA]

Is she also having G.I. issues?

[Tammy]

The tricky thing with two-year-olds with eating is that the harder we try the more they resist. It’s part of their developmental stage. I’ve heard of people having success by putting out the meal on the table and sitting down to eat and not inviting the toddler. And then the toddler joins them because they feel left out - but no one is telling them what to do so they feel free to “decide” to join the meal.

I’ve also watched parents talk to each other about how good the food is and they are so glad that it’s a food that is only for adults. And then the toddler says “me too!“ And decides to eat with them.

Of course there could be a physical reason for a kid not eating, but many times it’s the above dynamics.

[Zoe Girl]

I think it is more personality or age dynamics, however you would think she was getting hungry! I know thay have tried many ways to get her to eat like you said, so DR help is important now. She literally has no baby fat, ( at 23 months she is 21 lbs).

I saw a mom trying to get out of Target with a toddler throwing a royal fit, oh I don't miss that. They have no idea they could get really hurt by flinging themselves all over.