3 Yo Not Eating After Hospital

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My son has never really been a big eater. He had failure to thrive before age 1, then had issues with food textures, and now has no appetite with the ADHD meds he takes. We got advice from a nutritionist to add peanut butter, mayo or powerdered milk to add calories to his food, but he didn't like the texture. We used to read him a book or let him watch tv while he ate to get him to sit still. Now, I'll hand him a small piece of food while he's talking, talking, talking and he'll automatically put it in his mouth without thinking. I recently read a story that said soy sauce increased the appetite of cancer patients. My son does like saltier food such as soy sauce, feta cheese, and black olives.

I suggest this to everyone who has a problem getting their kids to eat. Make a smoothie that is more like a tasty milkshake.
If he has no allergies, try this one...milk, banana, peanut butter and nesquick (or a chocolate carnation instant breakfast or pediasure). My son loves these and on morning when he would rather not eat, he will down one of them in no time.
Or make one with different ingredients that you know he likes, berries with yogurt, or banana, orange juice and yogurt.
They are a good way to get calories and nutrients in, in a fun and yummy way for kids.
Good Luck!

Get some of the flavored Pediasure's. My son really likes those.

I even mixed them with a little of the regular milk to make them stretch a little farther.

I agree with most of these posts. Drinking is the route to take right now. Play with it a little. See if you can incorporate a tsp/Tbsp of olive oil into it. It's funny how this works. I have heard stories of adults who got very sick and became anorexic from it. Illness can change the body to some extent (temporarily). It's a lot easier to get fluids in them at first. Like others have said, pediasure and smoothies are probably going to be the best way to get started. Some ideas for smoothies: his favorite berries, frozen or raw veggies, yogurt, probiotics (over the counter at any pharmacy or grocery), raw oatmeal, nuts, PB, almond butter, juice, etc. It's going to be next to impossible but try to watch the sugar intake as much as you can (especially once you see an improvement).

I sort of know how you feel. I'm having some issues with my 6 year old. He won't eat anything nutritious anymore. He hasn't gained a single pound in a year and a half and has grown very little. Pedi's not worried about it but I see all of his friends passing him up. In my gut, I feel like something's a little off. Still trying to figure it out. I won't let him have cereal or snacks in the evening and he'd rather go to bed hungry than eat something nutritious. Even if the food is chicken nuggets, broccoli and mac and cheese (many kid's dream dinner)! I'm having to sneak veggies into smoothies and try to get as much protein in him as possible. This seems to be the only way I can get something decent into him. Good luck and stay on top of it. It sounds like you are!

Maybe try supplementing with Pediasure until he gets his appetite back. I have looked at other products on the market and none offer the same amount of calories, fat, and protein as Pediasure. It does have a lot of sugar, but just watch the intake of sugar in the rest of his daily diet.

sometimes when my son is so hungery he wont eat. i think it might be because his belly is already hurting from being hungery. (example when he is at a baby sitters all day and they are out and about and dont really offer him food) we give him a pedi sure and it seems to get him hungery for some actual food a hour later or so. hope this helps you. try getting him to eat snack foods. not just meals. will he eat yougart? good luck.

My son had a virus for several weeks when he was little and I kept calling the Dr. They gave me some samples of pedia sure in diffrent flavors to try to find out which one he liked. If you can get him to drink one instead of milk it has enough nutrients for one meal. My son, at that time would only eat a little one time a day. Once I got the pedia sure in him I felt better because I felt like he at least ate two meals that day. After getting this in him for a week or two he started eating better and having more energy.

Hi S., I understand how traumatic it is to have a baby in the hospital. My son wis in the PICU for nearly two weeks, just short of his 3rd birthday. He had RSV, collapsed lungs, pneumonia, was on the vent for a week. Terrifying business, worse still when you have to LEAVE him there alone for awhile, sigh. Anyway, underweight to begin with, he was then skeletal, and had developed a strong gag reflex from the tubes, had trouble swallowing. Anyway, there was no pediasure in those days, so I used Carnation Instant breakfast, mixed with whole milk, and sometimes straight up cream, was like a shake or ice cream. He LOVED it! I also strategically placed high calorie snacks around the house, where I knew he'd be and he would just pop them in his mouth, like WOW! what luck! here's a piece of breakfast sausage just sittin' next to my toy box! Course you have to keep up and make sure it doesn't sit for too long. I know just how you're feeling, maybe the 'grazing' idea will work for you. But your pediatrition is right, worse to make a big deal out of it, as long as he's taking in ample fluids, he'll be ok. Good Luck, hope you're fella is better soon!