Today - for the first time ever - Niamh has refused everything we have offered foodwise. She was kicking and screaming in her chair, didn't want mushy spoon food, or feed herself food, yoghurt, snacks, nothing. She's barely eaten a thing today. She's never been a big eater but this is new altogether.

I don't think she's teething. She does have a cold but has had it for 6 weeks now. I'm hoping it's just a one off but I fear somebody is going to tell me this might last a while

We go through phases of this quite regularly. It starts and within a day or two of it he comes down with some poorlyness or we see signs of teething. With us, it can last a while; the longest was about three weeks although that particular time he wasn't refusing ALL foods, just eating quite a lot less than normal. He had a bad cough and cold at the time and also cut his two upper canines. Normally it will last maybe a week. I have rung the HV, taken him to docs etc but I am always told that as long as he is drinking plenty of fluids then there is no real need to worry; he will not let himself starve and will eat when he wants to and TBH he always does. I know how you feel though, the first couple of times this happened it freaked me out so much! We had tears (him and me) as I desperatly tried to get him to eat something. When it happens now I just go with the flow. What I did do was revert to Toddler Milk rather than just cows' milk and I added vitamin drops for the period that he wasn't eating. I also gave him extra milk in his cup mid-morning as well as his normal milky drink with his breakfast, afternoon snack and at bedtime. The HV urged me to be careful and not let him get into bad habbits with his eating, but for a few days the only thing he would eat was cheesy puff crisps and so I let him have them. Once he started to get better I no longer offered these and he went back to his normal, balanced diet very quickly. I know that many people would not do this but I was just desperate for him to be eating something and so I allowed it - you've just got to do what helps you.

The advice I would offer is don't get stressed and try to make her eat if she really doesn't want to - it will only create negative links to eating for her. Also, try offering little bits of snack much more often than formal sit down meals. I often leave out little bowls of apple slices or grapes that Frankie can just help himself to. I always offer breakfast, lunch and dinner too which has often resulted in a lot of wasted food. The only thing I found that helped was that Frankie would always eat if we were walking in the pram. I take sandwiches and fruit and set off to the park and he will eat as we walk around, not sure why but that has always worked for us! We are in the middle of a "can't fill him up" phase at the moment and he has gained 2lbs in the last two weeks, but I know that he will go through a fussy period again before too long; it's just how he works! xxx

Thanks Mrs W. That's great advice. I'm not stressing too much as it's only one day (so far) and she still has 4 bottles of milk per day, which she has taken happily. Perhaps she is cutting her molars as her 8 front ones are through now. Or perhaps she's just being a monkey......

Breakfast and lunch were a fight and by teatime I had to walk away and leave it to OH, as I was starting to get impatient because I was desperate to get some food into her. I'll just go with the flow now and not force it. I can see now how it might cause negative connections.

Thanks again.

Millicent's had a cold for about 3 weeks now and has gone right off food and she is a big eater. Yesterday for example ALL day she had about 5 baby ricecakes and a fruitpop, whereas normally she'd have that just for snack. Today all she's had is a bowl of porridge, 2 yoghurts and some pom pom bears..makes me so sad but i've been told aslong as she's getting fluids she'll be okay xx