Poor appetite in a child: what to do? What to do if the child does not eat well. Proper organization of the feeding process

Poor appetite in an infant

POOR APPETIT IN A CHILD: causes and solutions

Poor appetite in a child ... Something that, unfortunately, more than one family faces. Let's try to understand this issue today: find out the causes of poor appetite in children, and also try to find a solution to this unpleasant problem!

And the famous American pediatrician Benjamin Spock will help us with this. Here's what he says about a child's poor appetite.

The child has poor appetite: causes and solutions.

In the 1930s, when I started my pediatric practice, there were many children in America with feeding problems.

First of all, this was due to the fact that at that time they already knew a lot about nutrition, but they still had a rather vague idea about the features of child development. Therefore, medical school teachers told future doctors that they should instill in mothers the idea of ​​the need to strictly follow a diet containing the required number of calories, essential vitamins and minerals, and not deviate one step from the established recommendations.

So, conscientious doctors instilled fear in conscientious parents, and as a result, children's stomachs suffered. Today, with doctors recommending a flexible approach to menus, as well as to the amount of food consumed, feeding problems have become much less, but they still exist.

A small part of them is associated with chronic diseases, but the essence of most is that up to a certain point the child ate well, and then the child lost his appetite. In children with chronic diseases, the picture looks different.

All children develop in their own way. In the future, some will be high and others low. Some will be broad-shouldered while others will be narrow-shouldered. Some muscles are well developed, while others are poorly developed. Some gain weight quickly, even if they seem to be eating a little, while others, no matter how much they eat, remain thin. Not all parents can come to terms with these individual characteristics. In their minds, there is an image of an ideal boy or girl, and any deviation from it is considered a disadvantage and needs to be corrected. They may be unhappy if their daughter is of strong build, or if their son is short or narrow-shouldered.

Some children who do not eat too much food do not suffer from lack of appetite and develop quite normally, in full accordance with the genes they received from their parents. From birth, such children do not weigh too much, and also differ in moderation in food. They have no problems with feeding, the only problem is that the parents would like to see them more portly and have a better appetite. But moms and dads are wise enough not to force-feed the baby, as this will further worsen the appetite.

I want to emphasize that parents should be content with the physique that the child has received from nature - because the more they force him to eat, the worse his appetite will become. Or, if they decide to reduce the amount of formula their overweight baby eats during feedings, he will begin to demand food in between feedings.

The child has poor appetite: causes.

Most children with poor appetite had no feeding problems at first. Their appetite deteriorated when, at a certain stage, their parents began to worry and began to force the children to eat more than they wanted.

1. Illness of a child.

I remember as a child lying in bed with a high fever and smelling the dinner my mother was cooking. How disgusted I was by this smell: how can people eat such food!

It usually takes a few days after an illness before the appetite returns. A mother who is concerned about how little her baby ate when she had a fever finds it very difficult to resist forcing the baby to eat when the temperature has already subsided and the appetite has not yet returned. This intermediate stage between the end of the disease and the return of appetite is of great importance: if the mother forces her baby to feed, the temporary loss of appetite may well become permanent. Wait a few more days - and you will be rewarded by seeing with what appetite the child absorbs food after his body has got rid of the infection. I remember several cases where appetite improved to the point that mothers asked me if it was normal for their children not only to eat more than before, but also to ask for supplements an hour after feeding.

So, patience and trust in nature are the best medicines, as well as great ways to prevent feeding problems.

2. Overfeeding the child.

There are other critical periods during which the risk of loss of appetite is especially high. For example, a premature baby who has spent several weeks in the hospital is finally taken home. He weighs enough for doctors to conclude that he is not in danger of life, but to parents he may still seem like a creature suffering from hunger. They get nervous and try to give him as much milk as a small child can fit. But such parents should from the very beginning teach themselves to stop feeding immediately after the baby has lost interest in him. Don't try to "pour in a few more drops". It is possible that you will succeed, but only by reducing your appetite over the next few feedings. So your actions are ultimately doomed to failure.

3. Incorrect introduction of complementary foods.

Some nutritional problems are associated with the introduction of solid foods. The mother, having misinterpreted the words of the doctor or having heard an opinion from the outside, will decide that every day you need to increase the amount of solid food in the baby's diet. But in fact, the baby needs several days or even weeks to adapt to unusual food for him: a hard spoon, a viscous consistency, the need to move food from the tip of the tongue to its back. The whole process is so unaccustomed to him that the expression on the faces of most children indicates disgust rather than hunting! They protrude their tongue and push their food out of their mouths so that almost all of it ends up on their chin. But after four or five attempts, the mother still manages to feed them most of the contents of a teaspoon. Do not try to give your baby more than one teaspoon until he has mastered the new feeding technique and you see signs of pleasure on his face. This may take one or two weeks.

I often hear parents say, "If I try to give him another spoon, he usually eats it." Parents think that they are doing this for the benefit of the child, but after weeks or months, the baby's appetite will decrease. If you see the slightest sign of losing interest in food, immediately put the spoon back in its place. Do not wait for the baby to turn away or forcefully clench his jaw.

As a rule, the first solid food for a baby is porridge, but I would recommend stewed fruit or baby fruit purees. You can also give children mashed fresh ripe bananas.

Since up to now the baby has been fed exclusively on milk, he may, out of old habit, demand a breast or a bottle. If you offer him porridge or puree from a spoon, he will probably get upset. These babies should be breastfed or bottled first. Later, when the baby understands that solid food can also satisfy hunger, you can start feeding with it.

4. New opportunities and interests of the child.

At the age of six months, children sometimes have a slight decrease in appetite, and the monthly weight gain, which used to be from 500 to 700 grams, decreases to 0.5 kilograms or more.

Also during this period, children develop new abilities, there is an interest in the world around them. Having learned to sit without support, they perceive parents and surrounding objects differently than when they spent the whole day lying on their backs. Children develop grasping skills, so now they can pick up toys, in addition, they gradually learn to speak. Therefore, if before the child's attention was focused almost exclusively on food, now he has other interests.

5. Other reasons.

Eating problems most often begin between twelve and fifteen months. For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, most babies suddenly refuse to eat the food that they used to like. One factor here may be that they are now putting on 200-250 grams of weight every month. Also, children begin to show independence and there is a desire to make their own decisions, including in the matter of choosing food. More often than not, they refuse to eat some or all of the vegetables.

What's the matter here? After all, they used to like this food. Perhaps someday we will find the answer to this question. However, some return to their former taste preferences after a few days or weeks, while others have an aversion to certain products for the rest of their lives. But even in adults, the appetite is not always stable.

Maybe the reason is that at the moment the baby's body does not temporarily need certain substances? And everything is explained by a slowdown in growth, which will accelerate again only in adolescence? In any case, these changes must be accepted as they are: coercion obviously will not bring benefits. No need to force the baby to eat what he does not like. Just give him the food he won't refuse.

The child has a poor appetite: a solution to the problem.

1. Choosing the right….

Tell me, please, how can we correct the child's appetite?

Already 1.5 years, and eats a very limited set of products. No amount of persuasion and threats will force you to eat normally.

I'm afraid that he lacks vitamins, but I don't know how to fix the situation.
Irina.

Hello!

A good letter and a good question that I cannot leave unanswered.

You know that in order to develop normally, the child must receive good nutrition.

However, very often mothers of grown children come to my consultations, faced with poor appetite.

A child is not something that is difficult, but it is simply impossible to feed him.

So, let's discuss what to do if the child has a poor appetite and how to solve this problem.

What is appetite and the causes of its violation

A person instinctively chooses the food that his body requires. Appetite is based on the feeling of hunger, which occurs in the hypothalamus.

It should be understood that young children (6 months and a little older) do not eat out of hunger. They may well fill up with breast milk, but they still begin to ask for food from their mother's plate.

It's an interest in food. The most powerful incentive for a healthy appetite. If food interest is disturbed, there are problems with appetite

Why is the child not eating well?

The causes of poor appetite are medical and pedagogical.

Pedagogical reasons include:

• snacks between feedings, especially sweets;
• excessive and irregular feeding;
• if they are accustomed to cartoons while eating, but they are not turned on;
• no reward for food;
• the child is not in the fresh air and moves little;
• Bad mood.

Attention! If you promise to buy a new toy for a good meal or turn on a cartoon, then you are making a big mistake. The habit is formed quickly, but getting rid of it will not be easy.

In addition, children may not eat well during the heat, with untimely introduction of complementary foods, from the fact that it is difficult for them to chew. Also, babies do not want to eat when they are given too large portions and monotonous food.

There may be psychological reasons as well.

1. parents force-feed the child;
2. if there is no mother nearby;
3. stress during the period of adaptation to a kindergarten (an important article on the topic: Adaptation to kindergarten >>>);
4. family conflicts or the appearance of another child.

Loss of appetite can be temporary or permanent.

• A short-term disturbance may be associated with the quality of food, with the organization of nutrition, lack of drinking and the monotony of dishes;
• For a long time, appetite can be disturbed due to intoxication of the body and gastrointestinal disease, with problems with the nervous system.

What causes poor appetite?

If children are malnourished at an early age, this can lead to problems in mental and physical development. Since the baby does not receive all the nutrients he needs from the products, he may lag behind in growth and development.

When a student is malnourished, he does poorly in school. Serious refusal to eat leads to anorexia.

Important! The most vulnerable are children under the age of five. From poor nutrition and lack of nutrients, they become anemic and often fall ill.

Also, monotonous and unbalanced nutrition can cause damage to health.

If the baby does not eat well for a long time, then it can be clearly said that he is malnourished. At the same time, the child's body does not receive all the necessary nutrients that it needs for development and growth.

Inadequate nutrition gradually leads to a decrease in immunity and low body weight, the baby often gets sick and gets tired quickly, learns poorly and develops poorly. Poor nutrition can lead to serious consequences for the health of the baby.

Attention! Many parents give their baby any food, even harmful, believing that the main thing is to replenish the amount of food. However, this is a gross mistake, because such a tactic leads to the fact that the baby quickly gains weight, which only aggravates his health.

Causes of poor appetite by age

1. In infants, appetite decreases with improper introduction of complementary foods;

If during feeding you overfeed your baby, force-feed and distract his attention while eating with cartoons and games, then you will get a problem with appetite after a while.

1. Children older than a year and children of preschool age do not eat well, if the diet is disturbed, they interrupt their appetite with sweets, in the interval between the main meals;

At any age, appetite decreases with:

• acute and chronic diseases;
• low hemoglobin and endocrine diseases;
• cardiovascular disease and liver problems;
• poisoning;
• excess vitamin D;
• while taking medications.

How to improve appetite

If a child does not eat well, how to increase his appetite? To begin with, you need to diversify the menu, pay attention to serving and make sure that the baby is not afraid that he will be forced to eat.

1. Appetite usually improves if the child eats together with all family members. You can feed him with other children or at a common table;
2. In this situation, it is more important to eat a more nutritious meal;
3. It is necessary to cook foods that excite the appetite;
4. For normal bowel function, it is important to give cereals, fruits and vegetables;
5. For appetite, the baby should be in the fresh air, play outdoor games, play sports and undergo hardening procedures;
6. Joint cooking will help raise the appetite of the baby.

In no case do not scold the baby at the table and do not force him to eat, this only discourages the desire to eat.

You can invite older children to make a “false choice” by offering him pasta or mashed potatoes, vegetables or porridge.

When you feed your baby, follow some rules:

• try to eat food with the whole family;
• make sure that the baby does not interrupt his appetite;
• do not allow the child to eat in front of the TV;
• plan your baby's daily routine so that he works up an appetite.

The problem with appetite during a latent chronic illness is eliminated by a pediatrician after a complete examination.

All children are individual, so the approach to eliminate the cause of poor appetite is different for everyone.

However, there are a few secrets that you may find useful:

1. Make sure that the child does not snack between meals;
2. Do not allow to knock with a spoon and play with food;
3. Try to focus your baby's attention on eating;
4. If the baby does not eat any foods, then introduce them little by little into the main dish, after mashing them into a puree;
5. Do not force feed;
6. Control how a small person chews and swallows food, do not put a spoon in his mouth until he has managed to open it for the next portion of dinner.

Write your questions about children's nutrition in the comments.

What nutritional or complementary feeding difficulties do you face? What worries you the most?

Lyudmila Sharova, nutrition consultant, child psychologist.

Poor appetite in a child is a cause for concern for many parents. Does the child really eat little or is this an erroneous perception of the parents? Such complaints always require a critical attitude and confirmation.

Causes of loss of appetite in a child:

1. Poor nutrition, for example, overfeeding meat protein to children who love meat and do not want to eat anything else; supplementary feeding in the intervals between regular meals, abundant consumption of milk and sweets.

2. Acute and chronic diseases of the digestive system: diseases of the intestines, liver, gastritis, celiac disease, sometimes - a lack of zinc in the body.

3. Acute and chronic infectious diseases: all viral and bacterial infections accompanied by fever, tuberculosis, urinary tract infection, thrush.

4. Iron deficiency in the body, not even accompanied by anemia, especially in young children.

5. Diffuse chronic brain diseases, metabolic abnormalities, hereditary degenerative brain diseases.

6. Reluctance to chew

7. Diencephalic syndrome, for example, a brain tumor in the hypothalamus. At the same time, children remain amazingly active.

8. Diseases of the respiratory system, accompanied by respiratory failure.

9. Diseases of the cardiovascular system, accompanied by circulatory failure.

10. Taking a large number of medications, kidney failure, vitamin D hypervitaminosis.

11. Endocrine disorders: Addison's disease, increased function of the parathyroid glands.

In such cases, a doctor will help to identify and eliminate the cause.

Psychogenic causes of loss of appetite

Sometimes a decrease in appetite can be associated with the child himself - internal depression, inconspicuous eating at an inopportune time. It should be borne in mind the possibility of reducing appetite on the basis of the conflict between the child and parents.

Here are some such situations:

1. Mom offers the child too much food that he cannot eat.

2. The child refuses to eat if eating is associated with negative emotions. For example, a mother pushes her child around the table, demands excessive cleanliness from him. Or if the dinner table becomes a place to discuss the child's faults and practice good manners.

Poor appetite due to nerves can be observed in girls 12-16 years old, the so-called pubertal exhaustion.

How to teach a child to eat?

1. First of all, stop worrying. If you went to the doctor and he did not find any diseases in your child that could reduce his appetite, then leave him alone. Most children go through a stage of fussy eating sooner or later. The child's body is designed in such a way that it regulates how much and what to eat for normal growth and development.

2. Do not discuss his appetite with anyone in front of a child. Don't threaten him if he doesn't want to eat, and don't reward him if he ate well. Very often, a child will start to eat better if he feels the absence of pressure on him.

3. Don't feed your baby between meals. If the child has not eaten well, then offer him the next portion of food only when it is time for the next meal.

4. Many parents do not count juices, milk, cookies as food. For many children with poor appetite, this will be enough to destroy the appetite completely. If the child is thirsty, just give him drinking water.

5. If the child has a poor appetite, offer him small portions. Form the so-called clean plate reflex.

6. Do not put on performances, storytelling, etc. during meals. The American pediatrician B. Spock very correctly wrote about this: "Parents should not bribe a child to force him to eat, that is, tell him a fairy tale, put on a performance for every spoonful of food ... Such persuasion, ultimately, further reduces the child's appetite, although at the moment it is as if the child is being forced to eat a few extra pieces. Parents have to increase the bribe to get the same result. Such parents end up playing the hourly result for five spoons of soup."

7. Don't force your child to eat food to get candy. Do not ask him to eat a spoonful "for mom." Make it a rule for yourself not to ask your child to eat.

If a child develops well, is normally well-fed, has a balanced character, does not suffer from vomiting or diarrhea, then his loss of appetite is not associated with any organic disorders.

There are practically no children who cannot be forced to eat normally. There are parents who disregard advice because they think they know their child better.

Literature

1. Your child's health. The latest reference book./Under rivers. V.A. Alexandrova. Izv-vo Eksmo, 2003

The site administration site does not evaluate recommendations and reviews about treatment, drugs and specialists. Remember that the discussion is not only conducted by doctors, but also by ordinary readers, so some advice may be dangerous to your health. Before any treatment or taking medications, we recommend that you consult a specialist!

COMMENTS

Lena / 2012-03-20

My child is already in the second grade, and I feed him everything with a spoon. He's just too lazy to eat. And I know that if I don’t put a spoon in my mouth, then he will still be hungry. And very skinny. And I myself, so I can stuff a full plate of porridge, it’s not noticeable at all under conversations ... But what to do ...

Natalia / 2014-04-23

Very good and informative article about appetite in children! I will definitely take my child to the doctor!

Sveta / 2014-12-11

Girls, share your advice. My child has a poor appetite. I went to the doctors - healthy. He's just too lazy to eat. Here you make soup, feed from a spoon - eat. And what needs to be chewed is lazy. He is already 10 years old. Maybe there are some folk remedies that improve the child's appetite. Some grandma's recipes.

Poor appetite in a child in the summer is the exception rather than the rule, because movement and fresh air do their job. However, in hot weather, children may actually eat less than usual. Is it so important to monitor the amount of food eaten, says a pediatrician with 40 years of experience, Yuri Ivanovich Staroverov.

Reason one: eat what you want

In the morning the phone rings in the clinic. An anxious female voice says: “My boy refuses to eat. And this is not the first time. What to do?". To begin with, it is always a good idea to find out what the lack of appetite is manifested in. It often turns out that the child refuses some of the foods, but willingly eats others. For example, defiantly spits out porridge and demands sweet fruits. If they go towards him, the next time the situation repeats itself. It's obvious that selective appetite problem has nothing to do with appetite per se. The problem is pedagogical: a usurper and an egoist are growing in the family.

But what to do anyway? It is important that the child in the family feel like an equal among equals, and not a darling of fate and the center of civilization. He does not want to eat porridge - breakfast is over, lunch is in 4 hours. Don't eat soup at lunch - wait until dinner. At the same time, it is very important that in the intervals between meals the food does not catch the eye of the child, that he does not have the opportunity to eat on his own and that there is no talk about food in his presence.

Many object: “So he won’t eat like that for the whole day.” It's OK. Nature has created man in such a way that he can quite painlessly go without food (but not without drinking) for several days. Well, things usually don’t come to this, provided, of course, that mom and grandmother have enough patience. And not enough, well, it's your child ...

The formation of eating habits in a child largely depends on the example of adults. It is difficult to demand thoughtful food intake from the baby if dad usually snacks on sandwiches on the go, and the family never gathers at the dinner table.

Reason two: snacking

Another common variant of falsely reduced appetite is associated with snacking between meals. The child did not eat well at breakfast, an hour later he is offered a sandwich, an hour later he eats yogurt, and at lunch he does not want to eat again. Or a schoolboy returns home when the adults are still at work. He takes it out of the fridge and eats a piece of sausage. Mom comes back, offers him food, but he has no appetite.

If you want your child to have an appetite, you should not feed him between meals.

Reason three: individual development

As you know, children are very different, and their food needs are also different. One child is restless, rushes like a top, jumps endlessly, climbs everywhere. The other is calm, sedentary, prefers quiet games, likes to listen when books are read to him. The first, as a rule, is thin, regardless of what and how much he eats - everything burns in his energy furnace. The second is usually well fed, although it may eat less than the first. The nutritional needs of children largely depend on the costs of physical activity, growth, heat production, and infection control. It got colder outside - the child began to eat better; growth accelerates during puberty - appetite improves; ran on the street - "worked up an appetite."

Along with differences in energy needs, each child has its own digestion capabilities (splitting and absorption of food), its own metabolic rate. And depending on this, the need for food in children of the same age can also vary significantly.

The measure of the adequacy of a child's nutrition is not the amount of food he absorbs, but the level of his development.: growth rates, fatness, timeliness of the appearance of new skills in him.

Often they go to the doctor not because the child does not eat well, but due to the fact that: "I feed him, I feed him, but his ribs stick out anyway." And sometimes it is extremely difficult to convince a mother (and especially a grandmother) that this is how it should be, that this is normal.

And it should be so because children grow unevenly. Up to 3 years, the so-called "period of first fullness" continues, when weight gain is somewhat ahead of growth rates. But after 3-4 years, the stretching period begins (the so-called "half-height growth spurt"). The child accelerates in growth, and it seems that he is losing weight. And in the first grade, most children go thin, slender.

“Most, but not all,” you say, and you will be right. Yes, indeed, children, among other things, differ among themselves and in their physique. Some are narrow with an elongated cylindrical chest, with long arms and legs and with a small amount of adipose tissue - asthenics. Others with a broad chest, strong bones, well-developed muscles and a tendency to increased fat deposition. Both are perfectly normal. But why such differences? Maybe it's the food? Everything is much easier. Look at yourself in the mirror. The child is similar to you not only in the color of the eyes and the shape of the ears, but also in the features of the physique.

Reason Four: Loads

You, of course, had to watch the children. At home, on the street, they are able to run, jump, jump, somersault for hours. By nature, a child is a bunch of energy that needs to be released. As this energy is consumed, there is a need to replenish it, that is, an appetite appears. Extremely rarely (I don’t even remember) children who systematically go in for sports complain about the lack of appetite.

In our clinic, a fairly large group of female swimmers and female gymnasts was examined. We conducted a preventive examination of Nakhimov and Cadets. No one has a poor appetite. And it's not that they are poorly fed at home. They just have a high level of physical activity.

High energy consumption - and the child has no problems with appetite.

It is possible that in the above example it also matters the phenomenon of "collective nutrition". Even in the old days, wealthy people with little children used to invite children from poor families to dinner. It turns out that a good appetite is contagious. And in our time, when a child eats in a team and when he knows that what he does not eat, his comrades will eat with pleasure, this has a very exciting effect on his appetite.

But relatives of a fat boy complain about his lack of appetite. It turns out that he was released from physical education on some far-fetched pretext, after school he additionally studies a foreign language, plays the violin at a music school, and plays at the computer in the evening. Ordinary modern child! Why be surprised here? Yes, even with reduced appetite, he remains overweight.

What can be done to help here? We'll have to break the whole established way of family life. It is not enough to give your offspring useful advice. We need a personal example here. You will have to go jogging with him in the morning, play football with him in the afternoon, ski in the winter, ride a bike in the summer, take him to the pool, go hiking. Or - to recognize their parental failure and leave everything as it is.

Reason five: feeding through force

Well, of course, it is impossible to force an appetite, but it is possible to force your child to eat without any appetite. And a lot of people go that route. You can often hear: “Well, immediately force! We don’t force our child, we persuade him.” Indeed, what kind of tricks do households invent to satiate their beloved child.

Of course, it is possible to stuff porridge or mashed potatoes into the child’s mouth, but will the food be digested with such feeding? Academician I.P. Pavlov’s work proved and subsequently repeatedly confirmed that for normal digestion it is not enough to place food in the stomach. It is necessary that the food looks appetizing, that it smells delicious and causes the release of gastric and intestinal juices.

Food taken fraudulently is poorly digested and not fully absorbed, and also disrupts the reflex activity of the digestive tract and contributes to the development of its diseases.

Well, it is completely unacceptable to feed a child under the threat of punishment. Under the influence of fear, the production of digestive juices generally stops, spasms of the stomach and intestines occur, vomiting and involuntary defecation are possible. This is how a neurosis is formed - a syndrome of habitual vomiting.

Food for a child means a lot - it is his growth, his development, his energy and his health. But a decrease in appetite in a child is not a tragedy at all. Of course, this may be one of the symptoms of a disease, but more often this is the result of nutritional errors.

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Discussion

I believe that you don’t need to directly “shake” over the child, because he is still small and his immune system is just being formed, it’s clear that he will get sick, sometimes have a poor appetite. My husband and I prefer to just support the body of our child and give baby vitamins in winter bears formula for immunity, so I'm calm

PediaGold - high-calorie cocktail!

We have PASTA on the pedestal! Plus cutlet))). ready to eat and everyone for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We don’t have snacks, sweets are strictly after meals. But no other food interests him, the variety consists only in different forms of pasta. I do not force him, but gently suggest something else. It happens that sometimes he will eat buckwheat or scrambled eggs ... Until I figured out what to do with it.

My son refuses to eat at the table just because he is bored of sitting, eats only if I chase him with a spoon.

I don’t know about anyone else, but eating normal food here is a whole problem, we don’t know what we want, I won’t, then I don’t want to. I've been getting on my nerves lately.

Snacking often ruins your appetite.

My daughter didn't eat well when she went to school. of course - pick up buns and chocolates, what kind of soup is there? That year, we were finally introduced food cards, now I don’t just give cash, I eat in the canteen (soup, buckwheat, vegetables), and at home I also eat normal food with appetite. Maybe this is a rather tough measure, but the stomach will be healthy, and there will be no excess weight. And then it’s scary to look at some modern children - they are 10 years old, and already have double chins (

My daughter at 2.5 years old had the following situation. She began to refuse food, at first selectively, then even from her favorite foods. It lasted for about three weeks. The pediatrician did not see anything wrong with this, she said not to force, to remove snacks. When my daughter ate 2 tablespoons of porridge in the morning for three days in a row, and drank only water for the rest of the day, I began to panic. At the same time, the child asked to eat, but refused everything that I offered. Fortunately, we were just about to have a scheduled examination at the dentist, where we found stomatitis. As soon as the gums began to be treated, the daughter began to eat better every day. Therefore, be more attentive to your children and make sure that the child is healthy.

Useful article. I'll take note

Eh, I found some of the above signs in us. We will fight...

Comment on the article "The child does not eat well. 5 reasons for the lack of appetite in children"

The child has a wild appetite. ... I find it difficult to choose a section. A child from birth to one year. The child has a wild appetite. Hello! From birth to 7 months, the daughter was breastfed on demand, by 7 months she maintained an interval between meals of 2-4 ...

no appetite. Upbringing. Child from 7 to 10. no appetite. Daughter 8 years old. eats very little. I don't know how to fight! and persuaded, and frightened her with ailments, that’s all for her, but motilium can be recommended to you if intestinal motility is bad. And with reduced appetite, it’s like that ...

Discussion

Check with a gastroenterologist. Mezim, as advised below, is not worth it. It is still for other purposes. So it’s not long to plant the pancreas - to drink such things without a doctor.

My oldest didn't eat when she was little either. In general. We were diagnosed with anorexia. Usually, not nervous, but as a lack of appetite. They drank something, did procedures, carried food with them, fed small portions between times ..

At the age of 13, she first said that she wanted to eat and has not closed her mouth since then. Now she is 20, she eats like a company of soldiers. For breakfast, she can eat 8 glazed cheese curds for tea after eating.
From her plates suitors faint.
But she weighs 50 kg with a height of 180.

Serzov was in the book, remember? here, in con-fe, their method was also mentioned.
Trays with food. Those. parents prepare trays for children (from the refrigerator, in those, apparently, where ice needs to be frozen) with all kinds of food. Pieces of peeled apples, mugs of bananas, quarters of avocado, boiled carrots in mugs, cheese, small cookies.
Will this method work? More and more precisely, you can probably find their book on the Internet, look at the authors themselves.

Lost your appetite? Digestion. Children's medicine. Child health, diseases and treatment, clinic, hospital, doctor, vaccinations. Lost your appetite? My kids just got sick with the virus. They put the flu. So Yulia 5.9 is already on the mend, on Monday she goes to the garden ...

Discussion

Lack of appetite after the flu is normal for up to 2 weeks (our doctor). Mine is also roaming, a week has passed since the flu.

Yulia was lethargic for about a week after the flu and did not eat anything. Then everything became OK. It's just the flu :(

Child from 1 to 3. Raising a child from one to three years: hardening and development, nutrition and illness, daily routine and development of household skills. if we don’t eat, it means we don’t want to. You can then cook at least 10 dishes, everything will spit. So let's work up an appetite.

But poor appetite is often a symptom of problems with the gastrointestinal tract (food is digested too slowly) or neurological problems - the child cannot concentrate on food, is distracted. In any case, the scheme does not work here - "get hungry - eat." Yes, it will ...

Any mother at least once faced a situation where her seven-year-old child tightly squeezes her lips, turns away and refuses to eat. How to behave in this case? After all, a prolonged decrease in appetite can be not just an act of protest, but also evidence of health problems. Let's discuss what to do when your child is not eating well.

Causes of Poor Appetite in Children

When wondering why a seven-year-old baby does not eat well, think about what exactly you mean by the term “bad”. Perhaps the child refuses what you are trying to offer him, but willingly absorbs something else. Then we can talk about selective appetite, unless, of course, harmful products such as chips, snacks and other fast food are included in the priority list.
There are a lot of reasons for a decrease in children's appetite:

• monotony - the baby is simply tired of eating the same thing, his body is fed up;
• lack of a clear eating regimen - it is advisable to follow a daily meal schedule, in which the intervals between meals will be 2-3 hours. A seven-year-old child can sit down at the table 4-6 times a day;
• uncontrolled snacking - in tandem with the previous paragraph, is one of the common causes of decreased appetite in children. Regularly eating either a candy or a sandwich, the child simply does not have time to get hungry enough by the time of a full meal, and, naturally, refuses to sit down at the table with you;
• unwillingness to chew or eat on their own - some children, even grown up, are very fond of being spoon-fed, and when they are refused, they immediately demonstrate protest and unwillingness to eat;
• infectious diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, allergens - if you feel unwell, accompanied by fever, cough, runny nose and other troubles, the child naturally refuses food;
• problems of the digestive system - diseases of the intestines, stomach, liver and other internal organs negatively affect the child's desire to eat a hearty meal;
• lack of iron - may be accompanied by a perverted or very selective appetite (with severe anemia). In this case, it is first important to restore the level of iron in the baby's body and create reserves with the help of medications, and then work with appetite;
• serious diseases (tumors, metabolic disorders, problems with brain function, breathing, heart, etc.);
• psychological factors - pressure from parents leading to an open clash of interests, banal whims in order to get something better and tastier, unformed value of food, fixed negative memories of the process of eating (for example, adults scolded in early childhood if the baby did not eat to the end ).

It happens that, without understanding the reasons, excited parents try by hook or by crook to feed a fastidious baby: they persuade, play, threaten, scold, force, feed between times (during games, for example), etc. Whatever the reason for the child’s refusal to eat, try to calm down and move on from the question “how to make a 7-year-old baby eat” to thinking about how to help him and get him interested in food.

What to do to make a 7-year-old child eat well?

Before you get worried that your child is not eating enough at 7 years old, compare his nutrition with the average daily intake of proteins (80 g), fats (75-80 g) and carbohydrates (300-350 g). In general, this will be approximately 2500 kcal per day. Divide these numbers by 4-6 meals and try to make a menu based on these data. It may be more convenient to feed the little one in small portions, but more often, than to try to cram the whole portion into him at one time.
Try to get away from the model of strict control over the amount of food eaten - your baby himself knows how much he wants to eat, leave him to be responsible for issues related to himself. Praise the baby, even if there is a lot of food left on the plate (we form positive emotions for the meal process). Use a beautiful and appetizing serving, serve accompanying products to the dishes (canapes, sandwiches, croutons, pies). Many children with great zeal save the heroes depicted at the bottom of the plate from the flood. Give up TV, tablet, games and performances during the meal - it distracts from the process and creates the wrong automatisms for the future. Sit down at the table with the whole family and demonstrate the rules of good manners - looking at you, the baby will soon begin to eat willingly too.
Try to be patient with your child, treat his temporary whims with understanding, and in this friendly atmosphere, your child’s healthy appetite will not keep you waiting.