Starving Himself???

apple juice has a lot of sugar.

he will eat when he is hungry... he will.

I identified with your post immediately. my nearly 5 yo grandson has been patting his tummy and saying, "I not feel so good." (He is speech delayed) He eats small amounts and sometimes eats most of his dinner. He also askes for something to eat and then doesn't eat it.

We have thought that he's slow in getting rid of a virus that we all have had. My daughter, his mother, says her stomach still hurts some of the time.

It is also possible that my grandson is anxious about something and/or saw his older sister getting special care when she was vomiting and had diarrhea and he wants to stay home with grandma too. He did stay home two days with his mother and one with me and still complained about his stomach.

If this continues, my daughter will have me take him to the doctor.

His sister has food allergies that were discovered when she was just a few months old. It was like she had colic. The pediatrician did some tests and identified the allergies. The most important one was for dairy. She was drinking a dairy based formula. My daughter switched her to a really expensive non dairy forumula and she got much better.

I'm lactose intolerant (this isn't an allergy) and when I eat too much dairy I feel bloated and have a tender stomach. Then, sometimes, food just doesn't sound good to me. I also have food allergies and oddly I discovered that I craved some of those foods to which I was allergic.

You could try limiting his diet. Take out dairy, peanuts, soy, eggs; all of which are common allergies. When my doctor was checking out my allergies he gave me 2 foods that I hadn't eaten very much of and told me to eat only those foods for 1-2 wks to see if I got better. I had rice and lamb. I was then to add one food at a time each week. I never managed to stay on the diet more than 2-3 days because I always got a bad headache. I've tried this several times. I've read that many people do succeed in finding out which foods cause the stomach aches with this method.

Ideally one would start only with rice. I had to have some protein because of my blood sugar levels. Perhaps this is why I kept getting headaches.

If you want to try this it's called an elimination diet and instructions can be found on the Internet.

My grandson is not loosing weight. If your son is loosing weight without growing taller there is more reason for concern and I'd definitely talk with his pediatrician.

As another mother said, it is possible to get intestinal infestations, such as worms or guardia. Your son wouldn't have had to be out of the country to pick these up. Guardia and some other parasites are present in our own rivers and streams. We can also pick them up from someone else when we come in contact with infected feces. Same with worms. Worms also live in the soil and contaminated soil can remain on our food.

I wish you the best in finding out if your son has a feeding issue that needs to be treated or if he's just "off his feed" for awhile.

The apple juice could definitely be part of the problem. It contains way more sugar than kids should have at one time, and could kill his appetite because his brain tells him he doesn't need any more fuel. This could leave him with hunger pain, however. The Mayo Clinic recommends limiting fruit juice to no more than 6 oz. per day for children between 1 and 6 years.

But I'd really take your little guy to a doctor and get him checked out. Tummy pain could indicate a medical problem, especially when coupled with weight loss.

E.,

Does he snack throughout the day, or does he have set meal and snack times? Part of the problem may be that he's grazing all day, but not getting enough food.

Hope this helps,
Melissa

Your child needs to go to the doctor. And, yes, kids can be slim. My daughters have never been chubby. In fact, the three year old's pants hang on her -- and she eats a lot. You and your husband are extremely thin, so I'm not suprised that your son is too.

My nephew actually has a tactile disorder of sorts where he doesn't like how foods "feel" and he had to have therapy to help overcome that. Even now they have a hard time getting him to eat. Your kid is different, though, since he's been eating and actually asks for food.

But get your kid to the doctor. He might have a serious condition. Have you been out of the country with him? Coudl he have worms? It takes quite a lot for children to complain about pain (real pain).

Good luck. I hope the little guy is feeling better soon.

The apple juice is probably giving him the tummy ache. Try giving him water instead. At that age, kids have two things they can control, what goes in and how it comes out (potty training). When my daughter is going through one of her non-hungry phases, I add protein to her Dinasour Eggs (oatmeal). That way I know she is getting enough protein. I use a high quality protein that is not too hard to digest. https://www.advocare.com/07121777/Store/ItemDetail.aspx?i.... Good luck:-)