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Four year old child won't eat
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Hi all
My daughter had a nasty bout of sickness last Wednesday night. Pretty much a 24 hour thing, she came in from nursery absolutley fine and woke through the night vomiting which went into the early hours and subsided. She hasn't been sick since.
However this is the first time she has been sick like that and it gave her a bit of a fright. She is now refusing to eat anything. I have tried all kinds of things, even crisps etc which I don't like her to have too often but just anything to get her eating again. And she just won't. But she will drink fluid.
Obviously it has been a number of days now and I am becoming quite concerned. Just wondering if anyone has any experience of this before I speak to her H.V. or G.P?
Many Thanks
xxx
Just to add for those of you that don't know, my daughter has cerebral palsy. Although I don't think its really relevant in this instance I always like to mention it when asking for advice.
My daughter had a nasty bout of sickness last Wednesday night. Pretty much a 24 hour thing, she came in from nursery absolutley fine and woke through the night vomiting which went into the early hours and subsided. She hasn't been sick since.
However this is the first time she has been sick like that and it gave her a bit of a fright. She is now refusing to eat anything. I have tried all kinds of things, even crisps etc which I don't like her to have too often but just anything to get her eating again. And she just won't. But she will drink fluid.
Obviously it has been a number of days now and I am becoming quite concerned. Just wondering if anyone has any experience of this before I speak to her H.V. or G.P?
Many Thanks
xxx
Just to add for those of you that don't know, my daughter has cerebral palsy. Although I don't think its really relevant in this instance I always like to mention it when asking for advice.
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I hope she feels better again soon
Not to be alarmist though, I have heard of cases where when a child has been vomitting, they become scared to eat assuming that the same thing will happen again.
I think I'd be inclined to pop along to the GP and mention it.
good luck
Thats a excellent idea - why didn't I think of that?! I suppose when you get stressed about their health you sometimes miss the simplest ideas!
Thank you.
Personally, I'd speak to the GP on Monday if she was still refusing to eat even after offering the yoghurts and things. I'm not sure if you should speak to someone sooner with your daughter having cerebal palsy though?
Edit: Ah, I see you haven't tried the 'smooth' drink type food method yet. Definitely give that a go first. Good luck and I hope she feels better soon.
Thank you. This is what I was concerned about as well. As well as having cerebral palsy she has just been diagnosed with high functioning autism and can become very fixated on things.
It's a very recent diagnosis (last fortnight) so I'm still getting my head around it. I will have a visit to the G.P to be on the safe side.
Now is the time to put all the good things to one side. Open the cupboards and ask her what she wants. Choc Ice and chips with a side order of jelly is fine.
You know how you feel when you're a bit off. There are times when only chocolate will do.:D
No problem, glad to help. Good luck and let us all know how she gets on.
Not eating is common in children with autism, all three of my autistic children have been small eaters and sometimes have eaten nothing at all for days on end in the past. A child will never starve themselves to death though, the secret is, not to make it an issue, to offer food every now and then but if it is refused, remove it and give her a nice drink instead, hopefully after a few days her apetite will return a little and she will feel hungry enough to try something.
Even if it is rubbishy junk food that she wants, give it to her, as something is better than nothing.
My 6 year old lives on fromage frais and the odd chocolate a lot of the time, I know it is worrying but in the end she will be hungry enough to try something, even if it is cheesy wotsits !
It's not going to be any good trying her with icecream, jelly or fruit smoothies for instance if she didn't like them before. If she finds the texture and/or taste of fruit smoothies appalling as my son does, you may take a step backwards and compound the newly found fear of food. But if your daughter likes yoghurts, icecream, smoothies I'd try any of those with a bit of coaxing.
My son has had a cold and he's not wanted any proper food but demolished a box of Frubes last night.