The desire that the child was always nourished and not hungry, is inherent in all normal and caring parents. And, if the child does not want to eat, it becomes a real headache for the parents. They plague both themselves and the child, forcing him to eat violently, but in the end it does not bring the desired results and the nutritional situation is only aggravated, the child can generally refuse to eat.
Causes of poor appetite
So why does the child refuse to eat. In most cases, the cause of poor appetite in children is the excessive desire of his parents to feed the baby, by all means. In many families, nutrition is the cornerstone, and nutrition is high in calories and excessive. As a rule, the children of such parents, concerned with food consumption, have an excess of body weight. The family encourages abundant feasts, snacks, a child in the kindergarten and the school must provide additional food.
But if a child is born in such a family, who eats little, this causes a storm of protest from parents, grandparents. And the baby is forcibly forced to eat. In the end, even your favorite foods start to disgust.
Other causes of poor appetite in children include various hormonal disorders, or even non-disorders, and a variable level of hormones in different periods of child growth.
After all, in infancy, the hormones of the pituitary, thyroid and pancreas are actively developed and this is due to the child's good appetite. Then after a year, intensive growth is suspended and often a one-year-old child begins to refuse to eat. In addition, it is at this age is the introduction of new products in the diet of the child. And it becomes clear what products your baby likes, and what categorically does not want to try.
At this initial stage in the development of food predilections, it is important not to force a child to eat what he does not want. After all, all products are interchangeable. If the child does not want to eat cottage cheese, and you think that sour-milk products must be present in the diet, replace the cheese with kefir or natural yoghurt. In the case when you do not like the sour taste, the product can be slightly sweetened.
The individual characteristics of the child's body also play an important role. Like an adult, a child can have a slow, normal, and accelerated metabolism. If the metabolism is slowed, then it can be spurred by physical loads corresponding to the age of the baby. The more energy a child spends, the more he needs "fuel" for the body. And willy-nilly, a child who has a constant physical load, will have to eat more food to transform it into calories.
If your child spends minimum energy during the day and his leisure is limited to playing on the computer and watching TV, it is worth reviewing his regime and replacing passive rest with active ones.
Refusal to eat during illness
Another thing is when a child's appetite is very bad during illness. Then, forcing food can only halt recovery. After all, when a person is sick, blood condenses, blood vessels contract, internal organs such as the stomach and intestine reduce peristalsis. The body forces all the forces to overcome the disease more quickly. And when food gets into the stomach, all the forces go to digest it, instead of fighting the disease.
Therefore, nutrition during illness should be light, puree-like consistency, with a lot of liquid. No need to try to improve appetite during illness, the child will recover and the appetite will return.
Looking for a solution to the problem
Finally, I want to give some more recommendations on how to improve the appetite of a child:
- feed more often, but in small portions;
- give the products that the child likes;
- try to decorate and nicely serve dishes for the child;
- to involve the kid in joint preparation of food;
- completely give up sweets and snacks;
- to organize joint meals, and not to feed the child separately from others;
- do not feed by force;
- more time for daily walks in the fresh air;
- increase and diversify physical activity.