3 year old wont eat

I have an on going problem with my 3 year old daughter- she hardly ever eats. She is very thin but is an average height. 94cm and 11.5 kgs. She wont eat breakfast, eats about a quarter of a sandwich for lunch, maybe a bite here and there of a piece of fruit or a biscuit during the day and a couple of mouthfuls of dinner. She is gaining weight very slowly and has been this way since 6 months. Health centre nurse isnt concerned because she is still growing in height and is active but i still worry. She will ask for food, i give it to her and she takes a bite and then says i dont want it. This is how she always eats. She also drinks a lot, usually milk or juice. She isnt fussy, she likes a huge variety of foods just in tiny amounts. Should i take her to see a pediatrician to make sure there are no underlying problems? any advice would help thank you

I have a 19mth old and he has not eaten anything but rice cakes and fruit bars since he was bout 11ths . at that age he ws on straight cows milk but now he is on formula again. He is only 10 kgs. qhich is just below average. the doctors aren't worried because he is well. It's just a thing that all kids can go through some more seious than others. Or if something happened whan this all started. My son went into hospital when he was 11mths and they said that he thinks that if he eats that sort of food again he will have to go back to hospital. think if there ws anything serious like that happen to your youngen

Hi Jacinta and Emma.

I believe that your daughter is getting the feeling of fullness with the amount of liquids she is consuming. You may like to consider giving her a drink after she has eaten, and mostly water.

hi jacinta
my four year old daughter is the same she has 1/2 a wetbix for breakfast 1/2 a sanga for lunch and about a tbs of spud for tea. she to drinks alot but i do stop it before meal times. my doctor said that it's fine because she is so small. 1mt tall 13-14? kg

Hi Jacinta,

I have a 3.5year old son with the same problem, only he won't even eat fruit! He was looking so thin so I started to give him a milo...morning and night, to get him to have something that would be about a good meal size! I tried not giving him anything to drink before food but it made no difference with him! He too was only 14kg (not big for a boy!) at 3 years so I went to the chemist and bought a vitamin powder which worked wonders (it's in the same area as the baby formulas)! You just add it to their milk drink...my son put on about 3kg in a matter of 2 weeks and looked so healthy! I haven't bought anymore since and he has only lost about 1kg over the past 6 months....he was sick and lost most of it then...but he hasn't lost anymore since! I also found it seemed to help increase his appetite...although not much but at least he was eating better than before! I still have trouble with getting him to eat but his appetite has improved tremendously from what it was like before, he will eat about half his meals!
You can only try it to see if it works...some it will some it may not, but give it a go as it was great for my son.

Best wishes

my 3 yr old son eats he but is so damn fussy it makes me crazy its fun every nite a he says cant eat that makes me sick we hve to coax every spoonful eg hve 3 spoonfuls the u can hve a drink or a pice of bread he has 1 spoon ful then says is that3? we say yes just 2 to go then he counts backwards till he has eaten the required amount