It often seems to parents that the child eats very little, and almost all grandmothers consider their grandchildren to be excessively thin and try to feed them at the earliest opportunity. At the same time, the child’s body has developed an instinct for self-preservation, so that the baby will eat as much as he needs. But there are cases when the lack of appetite is caused by very specific reasons.
Baby nutrition: norms
How much should a child eat? Caring mothers and watchful grandmothers usually answer as much as possible, however this is clearly contrary to common sense. Excessive nutrition is no less harmful to a growing organism than inadequate. Most often, the idea of the amount of necessary food in adults is quite distant.
Pediatricians say that a child aged one to three years should have four meals a day, including breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner. At lunch, the body should receive about 40-50% of the total nutritional value of the diet, and the rest is distributed for breakfast, afternoon snack and dinner. The energy value of products per day should be 1400-1500 kcal.
Causes of Lack of Appetite
Concerned parents often complain to pediatricians that the child has no appetite. The reasons can be different, there are a lot of them and they are all individual. During the period of formation of the dentition, for example, a decrease in appetite may be associated with the eruption of another tooth, or even several at the same time. It is also pointless to try to feed the baby during an illness, because the body throws all its strength into fighting the infection.
Other causes of loss of appetite in a child:
- monotonous nutrition;
- poorly expressed taste characteristics of dishes;
- stay of the child on breastfeeding after a year;
- lack of food culture;
- lack of physical activity;
- snacks between main meals;
- individual characteristics of growth and development;
- psychological problems;
- poor general health, illness;
- slow growth;
- fear of new types of food;
- anorexia nervosa (psychological aversion to food);
- emotional outbursts and stresses;
- protest against unloved foods, feeding through power;
- taking antibiotics or other medications;
- anemia, helminthiases and other diseases;
- digestive problems, constipation;
- metabolic disorder, food intolerance;
- external factors (often children refuse to eat on hot days).
Frequent snacks throughout the day
The cause of poor appetite in a child at 2 years old is often constant snacks between main meals. If the baby did not eat well at breakfast, in an hour and a half, his mother will offer him a sandwich or yogurt, and after a while - fruit and cookies. For lunch, the child again refuses the first and second courses.
Snacks violate the daily routine, discourage appetite and do not contribute to proper digestion. In addition, usually as a snack, the child receives something high-calorie and not at all healthy. The solution to the problem is simple. To have an appetite, you need to stop feeding the child between main meals.
Selective appetite
Children with selective appetite are often called "moody little boys." Such babies consume less than 65% of the recommended food norm for their age in four of the six main groups, including vegetables and fruits, fish, eggs and meat, carbohydrates and legumes, dairy and sour-milk products.
The behavioral features of children with selective appetite are the long-term retention of food in the mouth, the slow pace of eating, the use of fatty and sweet foods instead of wholesome and wholesome, snacks during the day, the reluctance to try new foods, and refusing foods of a certain consistency. Similar trends usually persist throughout childhood.
This reason for poor appetite in a child of 3 years (or a different age) can provoke a lag in physical development and form a chronic stressful situation in the family. So, parents begin to exert psychological pressure on the children, which leads to the appearance of further problems.
How to act if the baby refuses food? To eliminate the cause of a decrease in appetite in a child, parents are recommended:
- Maintain a positive attitude, do not force the child to eat food that he does not like.
- Change the diet. Refusal from vegetables can be compensated by an increase in the number of fruits, some types of meat can be replaced by others. New food should be offered to the child at least 7-10 times with interruptions of several days.
- Offer small portions. Instead of one large bowl of soup, you can give quite a bit of liquid food for lunch, buckwheat with a slice of meat and an egg or a sandwich.
- Take a creative approach to nutrition. Unloved, but healthy products can be “masked", and some children are much more willing to eat not a ready-made salad, but all the ingredients separately. Good "beautiful" children's dishes "work". Joint cooking can increase appetite.
Individual development
The reason for the lack of appetite in a child may be individual characteristics. If the baby develops normally and gains weight in accordance with age, and the doctor did not find any deviations, then you should not try to feed him by force. Such children usually eat with pleasure, but not enough (according to parents).
Babies grow very actively during the first year of life, and after this intense period, growth slows down, so that a little less food may be needed. In a year and a half, a decrease in appetite is absolutely normal. In addition, different organisms have different energy needs, digestion and metabolic rate. Therefore, the appetite in children of the same age can vary significantly.
Unbalanced diet
An unbalanced diet and other eating disorders can be the cause of poor appetite in a 5-year-old child or any other age. These include snacks between meals, a uniform diet, and tasteless food.
Perhaps mom does not have enough time for tasty and varied dinners. Of course, steamed vegetables and boiled chicken are very useful, but the child will get tired of eating the same thing every day. Food needs to be prepared in different ways. A baby can refuse certain foods even if he is fed up with this dish, for example, in a kindergarten.
Lack of physical activity
Lack of physical activity is rarely the cause of poor appetite in a 6 year old child. At this age, many begin to attend school, so the psychological reasons and regime change come to the fore. But for schoolchildren with an established regimen or quiet kids, a lack of physical activity can be a significant reason for refusing food.
Appetite appears as energy is consumed and a need arises to replenish it. Very rarely, for example, the parents of children who regularly play sports complain about refusing food. If, due to age or temperament, the baby spends a lot of time in a stroller or in his mother’s arms, then he is unlikely to want to eat tightly.
How to solve the problem, if the reason for the lack of appetite in the child is precisely the lack of physical activity? You need to walk in the fresh air, try to make the baby run and jump more, you can start attending the sports section. The ratio of physical and intellectual stress should be approximately one to one. Regardless of age, the child should spend at least three hours in the fresh air every day.
Fear of new food
If the child has lost appetite, the reasons may be physical or psychological. Fear of new food is a psychological feature that makes it difficult to eat normally. Usually this is faced by the parents of children who are conservative in food and refuse innovations. As a result, the diet becomes meager and monotonous.
If the child stubbornly refuses new food, do not rush him and force him to eat through force. After some time, it is worth proposing a new product again. The child will gradually get used to the appearance and smell of food, dare to try, and parents need to set an example of the use of new products, voicing their feelings and taste of the dish.
By the way, addiction to certain types of food is often explained by the needs of the baby's body, and not by whims. So, up to two years, children often refuse vegetable dishes in favor of dairy. This is due to the increased need for calcium, which is necessary for the development of the musculoskeletal system and teeth.
Poor appetite in a child of 7 years (the reasons may be different, it all depends on the situation) is also a manifestation of fear of new food at school. In addition, at 5-7 years old, many children prefer vegetables to dairy products, because the body needs more varied vitamins and minerals. This is the reason for refusing milk porridges and yoghurts.
Force feeding
If the child does not have an appetite for 2 years, the reason may be the persistent attempts of parents to feed the baby with healthy products through force. It is absolutely impossible to do this. Appetite will not appear, and food will not be properly absorbed.
Violent feeding disrupts the motility of the digestive tract and contributes to the development of diseases. Under the threat of punishment for refusing food, the child may experience cramping of the stomach and intestines, serious digestive disruptions, and involuntary bowel movements and vomiting are possible.
What to do to normalize appetite? It is necessary to provide the child with sufficient physical activity, to offer a variety of useful and outwardly attractive dishes, to maintain a positive attitude. In no case should you force the baby to eat. Family dinners “work” well - the child relaxes and eats more than if the attention of caring mothers and grandmothers is riveted to him, looks at the positive examples of adults who eat with appetite.
Food intolerance
If the child has lost appetite, the reasons may be in poor health. Children tend to refuse food at the onset of a cold or when they feel unwell. It’s just that the body at this time is actively struggling with an infection or other kind of malaise.
Sometimes there is a malfunction in the production of an enzyme that converts food into nutrients and vitamins. If the enzymes are poorly produced or one of them is not synthesized at all, then this leads to the fact that certain foods cause an upset stomach in the child. For example, with lactase deficiency, the baby will refuse dairy products.
Disorders of the digestive tract
Does the kid complain of stomach pain? Does the child have no appetite? The cause, most likely, is a violation of the gastrointestinal tract or food poisoning. To determine exactly the reasons for refusing food, you need to contact a pediatrician and a children's gastroenterologist. Perhaps the problem can be eliminated with the help of a therapeutic diet. In some cases, medication is necessary.
Anorexia Nervosa
Among adolescents, a passion for diets is relevant and psychological problems are often encountered - with persistent violation of eating habits, these are also common causes. The child has no appetite, he does not enjoy eating, is depressed? Perhaps this is just about anorexia.
Anorexia nervosa harms physical and psychological health. This condition can be caused by severe stress, worries about growing up, divorcing a parent, moving to a new place of residence, or moving to another school. More often than not, children who lack the attention of parents face a problem.
Various diseases
If the child has no appetite, the cause may be the presence of a disease. Not only digestion problems or metabolic disturbances, but also anemia, helminth damage to the body, and depression can provoke a refusal to eat.
In anemia, for example, the appearance of symptoms such as weakness, irritability, drowsiness, and constant fatigue is characteristic. To confirm or refute the disease, you need to take a blood test. With helminthiases in children, either a brutal appetite wakes up, or the kids persistently refuse to eat.
Absolutely in any disease, the body spends all its efforts to fight the disease, so you should not force a sick child to eat. It is better to ensure that the baby drank a sufficient amount of fluid. You can offer light broths or nutritious snacks. After recovery, the appetite gradually normalizes.
How to normalize appetite
The issue must be approached comprehensively. But you should not escalate the situation if the doctor did not find any deviations in the child. Perhaps a poor appetite is an individual feature of the baby. Parents need to let go of the situation, it’s easier to relate to the problem and relax.
A positive impression of eating helps to form family dinners, when all family members sit at the table and communicate on different topics. The child relaxes, ceases to be the center of attention and usually begins to eat much better. If the whole family cannot get together for lunch or dinner, then at least mom should eat with the baby.
It is worth trying to reduce portions, but to diversify the diet. That is, you can offer not one large plate with porridge, but a little porridge, a little vegetables and one soup ladle. Just do not need to put all the dishes on the table at once. It is better to offer your child meals in turn.
Be sure to consider personality. No need to force the baby to eat what he strongly dislikes. It should be clarified that the child wants for breakfast, lunch or dinner, offer a choice, involve him in the cooking process and make sure that the dishes are beautiful in appearance. The latter is especially important for visual kids.