Excellent appetite in a child is the key to a good mood in parents. There is nothing nicer than watching a baby gobble a freshly prepared breakfast, lunch or dinner for both cheeks. But most often the opposite is true. The child flatly refuses to eat what the mother or grandmother prepared. As a result, eating turns into a real war: the baby does not want to eat what he is offered, and his parents force him to eat at least a spoon. Even threats and tricks often do not help. What to do if the child has no appetite, we will tell in our article. We will definitely dwell on effective methods for solving this issue and present recommendations from the famous pediatrician Komarovsky E.O.
What determines the appetite?
Yesterday, the kid was happy to eat meatballs for a couple, but today you can’t force him to eat a piece of meat. Parents at a loss - what to do? Poor appetite in a child who is barely 1 year old may be a manifestation of his intuition. This does not mean that the baby will refuse meat in 3 years. Just today, the need for vegetables, fruits and dairy products may be higher. But the selective appetite of a baby at 3 and 4 years old and the rejection of certain foods is the result of his successful manipulation by parents. There are no medical explanations for this behavior. This opinion is shared by the famous pediatrician Komarovsky O. E.
Parents are very concerned about the fact that the child has no appetite. If you do as the child wants, and offer him only his favorite foods, then the body will not receive a number of nutrients. So mothers and fathers have to look for different ways how to raise it. Most often, a decrease in appetite has a physiological basis:
- Hormonal background. When accelerating the growth of the child, intensive production of hormones occurs in the body, respectively, the child’s appetite increases, and when slowed, it decreases.
- Energy costs. Moving children, as a rule, have excellent appetite, since the body at a subconscious level requires replenishment of energy.
- Individuality. Each person has his own metabolism, physique and musculature. Accordingly, one baby needs to eat at least 200 g portions, and another needs 120 g.
Why does the child have no appetite?
The baby can not always eat as much as the mother has prepared for him. But before you do anything, worry and figure out what to do if the child has no appetite, you need to find out the reasons for this condition. And they can be very diverse:
- abdominal pain, SARS, stomatitis, general malaise;
- stress caused by a quarrel with a friend, the death of a loved one or other reasons;
- depression;
- Anorexia nervosa (obsession with the idea of losing weight);
- taking antibiotics or other drugs that reduce appetite;
- constipation;
- lack of physical activity during the day;
- frequent snacks between main meals, as a result of which the child does not feel hunger longer;
- quenching thirst with sugary sodas and high-calorie juices;
- distractions from food (watching TV during lunch, etc.).
All of the above reasons apply to children who already know how to eat on their own. As for infants, they most often refuse to eat for another reason:
- a change in the taste of milk, for example, as a result of the use of garlic by mom;
- colic in the stomach;
- teething pain in the gums.
Sometimes the reason for the lack of appetite lies in the fact that the child simply does not like the taste of food: too salty, hot or, conversely, cold. In this case, it is not difficult to solve the problem - it is enough to remove the obstacle that prevents the baby from eating normally.
How to prevent the rejection of food and what to do if the child has no appetite?
It’s time for lunch, but the baby still doesn’t want to eat? Sometimes it’s enough to take just a few steps that will prevent the baby from refusing to eat at the right time:
- Feeding children is recommended in small portions 5-6 times a day, because their stomach is still too small to accommodate a large amount of food. That is why a child can only eat half of his lunch, and refuse the rest.
- Correct the menu. If the child does not like meat, he can be offered cottage cheese, fish or eggs. It is recommended to introduce into the diet foods rich in B vitamins, iron, folic acid. At the beginning of dinner, vegetable soups should be offered, and only for dessert fruit.
- Avoid force-feeding. If the children eat as much as they want, then very soon they will begin to enjoy the meal. The main thing is that the dishes are tasty, but healthy.
- Encourage children to cook. Perhaps the dishes prepared independently or with mom, the child will like more.
- Serve drinks and juices to the table only after the main meal. You don’t need to drink compote during lunch, it is better to do it after a meal.
- Cook interesting dishes. Even a child will eat banal fried eggs with great pleasure, if served in the form of chamomile or heart.
If you adhere to the diet and avoid snacks 15 minutes before lunch, your mother may not have to worry about why the child has lost his appetite. And what to do if all measures have been taken, and the baby is still reluctant to eat, the following methods will prompt.
Effective Appetite Enhancers
Parents will not have to complain that the child has a poor appetite and do tragedy because of a plate of soup not eaten if they try to correct the situation in the following ways:
- Increase physical activity. Children who play sports, dance or just spend a lot of time outdoors, as a rule, do not suffer from a lack of appetite.
- Make breakfast a must. Morning meals improve metabolism and increase appetite.
- Drinking water 30 minutes before meals. It is enough to drink just a glass of clean water to start the intestines and feel hunger in the near future.
- Avoid stress. No need to talk with your child about school and grades while eating. In a good mood and in a friendly atmosphere, he can eat much more than usual.
- Offer what you like. Try to cook your child's favorite foods, gradually adding healthy, vitamin-rich ingredients to them.
Appetite Enhancers
How to make a child like cooked dishes? The following products should be noted by parents if their child does not have an appetite, and they do not have any idea what to do with it:
- peanut;
- yogurt;
- green tea;
- avocado;
- pumpkin seeds;
- Garnet;
- almond and peanut butter;
- cashew nuts;
- basil;
- ginger;
- thyme;
- mint;
- peach.
The presented products are useful for the digestive system, they help to speed up the metabolism and increase appetite. In addition, it is recommended to add spices: coriander, Italian herbs, cinnamon, oregano. They will make dishes more fragrant, and a pleasant smell, as you know, enhances the appetite.
How to teach a child to love healthy foods?
Some children refuse food completely, but selectively. They persistently set conditions for mom, choosing what they will eat and what not. Here are just the sausages, pasta and french fries beloved by most children that cannot satisfy the nutrient needs of a growing body. What to do so that the child has an appetite and that he receives proteins, fats, carbohydrates and vitamins in full, the following recommendations will tell:
- Proper eating habits must be brought up from childhood. With the introduction of complementary foods, the child needs to be aggressively offered 10-15 times a day. At 7 months, the baby will happily blow out everything new, but at 2 years old with great caution.
- If a child refuses meat containing protein necessary for a growing organism, you can offer him fish. Refuses vegetables? They can be replaced with cereal or fruit.
- Organize a joint trip to the store so that the child chooses food for himself as an adult.
- A personal example acts on the baby better than any persuasion and threats. If the mother herself does not eat vegetables, but prefers sausage, then the child will do the same.
- Sometimes you can improve the appetite of crumbs using a varied menu. A child may not like cottage cheese in its purest form, but in the form of casseroles or toppings in pancakes, eat them with pleasure.
- Accept some individual crumb tastes. If the baby does not want to try the fish, you do not need to force him. Perhaps his taste habits will change with age.
It is worth remembering that neglect of healthy foods can lead to health problems. Each time, you should not give the baby only what he wants, but you do not need to force him either.
Nutrition during illness
An acute respiratory viral disease begins a few days before its first symptoms appear in the form of a runny nose or cough. In this case, it is not surprising that the child has a very poor appetite. To do in such a situation, you need what the body tells you, that is, to refuse food. And do not torment yourself with remorse about the fact that the child is hungry. In fact, it will be much easier for the immune system to cope with the disease on an empty stomach than to waste energy also on digesting food.
SARS is almost always accompanied by nasal congestion and sore throat. In this case, the baby will be very difficult to swallow food. Once the acute symptoms have passed, the appetite should recover on its own. In an extreme case, this will happen after a full recovery.
Quite often, a baby's appetite problems lie in his mouth. It can be stomatitis, gum disease, microtrauma, caries. All of these diseases make eating extremely difficult.
Common Parent Mistakes
Do not panic over the fact that a three-year-old or a one-year-old child has no appetite. What you do not need to do in this situation can be found in the following list of parent errors:
- Treat a nonexistent disease. It can be very difficult for parents to accept that the child does not eat because he is being raised incorrectly. It is much easier to refer to a diagnosis and feed the child with completely unnecessary medicines. No need to spend time and money on trips to hospitals and laboratories. It is better to change the lifestyle and mode of the day: take longer walks in the fresh air, play sports, etc.
- Force to eat. This is not only harmful psychologically, but also physically. If a child eats only because he is threatened (not to give candy, tell dad, etc.), his pancreas will give off less juice. As a result, food will be digested much longer.
- Giving food not by age. Some mothers seek to transfer the baby to the common table too early, and then complain that the child does not have an appetite per year. Do not do this. At the age of one, a baby needs grated food, and poorly perceives food in pieces. Adult lunch just does not cause him appetite.
Forced feeding of children
Very often, parents are forced to eat their child by force, even in the absence of his appetite. This problem is especially relevant for first-born mothers. They very much compare their child with their peers, which can be both higher and more well-fed. This is not necessary, and here is why.
Firstly, the physiological factor plays an important role here. Even with the same diet: one person may have a lean physique, and the other in complexion will be full.
Secondly, no one has canceled the hereditary factor. Before worrying about the fact that the child is gaining too little weight and height, you should look at yourself and the daddy of the child. But if a baby born to high parents is stunted, you should consult an endocrinologist to rule out hormonal disorders.
Rudeness, threats, punishment, feeding through force - this is something that absolutely can not be done, even when the child has absolutely no appetite. What to do in this case can tell the pediatrician, psychologist, endocrinologist, after the results of the examination of the child. But sometimes it’s enough just to watch your child, to pay attention to what he likes, to jointly create a menu for a week. Forced feeding can cause serious psychological trauma, the results of which can be diseases of the stomach, heart, etc.
Dr. Komarovsky about poor appetite in a child - what to do?
A well-known pediatrician fully supports and supports the active lifestyle of any child. He believes that if the baby did not eat soup for lunch, then do not rush to the stove and cook him something else. Let the child recover better to “whet” his appetite. When hunger becomes strong, even an unloved soup will seem very tasty. The main thing is that next time the baby should be offered the same soup, and not succumb to persuasion that he again has no appetite. What to do with the child, Komarovsky makes it clear - his opinion needs to be listened to, but not obeyed. The last word should be for the parents.
The pediatrician draws attention to the fact that the daily routine of mother and child may not coincide. To find out when the baby wants to eat, you need at least a day not to offer him food at all. When a child is hungry, he will ask for himself and, most likely, will eat everything with great appetite.