Problems with poor appetite in children are familiar to many families. Sometimes the whole family (grandmother, mother, father) uses sophisticated techniques to feed the baby at least a few spoons of porridge or soup. Persuasion, promises and threats are used. In many cases, they are in vain; refusal to eat may be accompanied by vomiting. This naturally worries parents, and they try to find out why their child is not eating well and whether he is healthy.

Sometimes the refusal concerns some specific foods (eggs, meat, cottage cheese or vegetables), other children eat any food very poorly. “Little babies” refuse to try new foods, which sometimes forces the mother to feed the child monotonous food, which he agrees to eat.

As a result, such children develop a deficiency of nutrients, microelements and vitamins needed by the body, which can pose a health hazard. The child may be delayed in weight and height. Protein deficiency is especially dangerous, and...

Children who do not receive adequate nutrition are more susceptible to infectious diseases. Scientists have proven the connection between malnutrition and poor school performance. Such students have problems with memorization, ability to concentrate, and understanding new material.

Causes of lack of appetite in children

The baby may refuse to eat during teething because eating causes him pain.

Pediatricians most often hear complaints from parents about poor appetite in children. It is very important to determine the reason why your child is not eating well. They can be different, they can be divided into several groups.

1. Physiological reasons may be:

• child's illness;
• teething;
• hot season;
• untimely introduction of complementary foods;
• too large portions of food (satiation occurs when eating a smaller portion);
• The child is tired of monotonous food;
• inability to chew food, etc.

1. There can also be many psychological reasons:

• force feeding of a child by parents;
• absence of mother (her going to work, etc.);
• stressful situation for the child (adaptation to kindergarten, school, etc.);
• change of place of residence;
• family conflicts;
• the birth of another child, etc.

Translated from Latin, the word “appetite” means desire, pleasure from food. Decreased appetite in a child can occur at any age. Forcing children to eat is wrong. We need to understand the cause and eliminate it.

Small children can be divided into 2 groups: the child wants to eat, but cannot; or doesn’t want to eat, but can.

Children from the first group do not have problems with appetite. They may eat poorly or little for the following reasons:

1. Premature babies get tired quickly and therefore stop breastfeeding and do not gain weight well. Such babies need to be put to the breast more often or fed with a spoon or syringe until they are able to suck out a full portion of mother’s milk themselves.
2. Short frenulum of the tongue.
3. Inflammation of the oral mucosa and gums during teething.
4. Impaired nasal breathing as a result of a runny nose.
5. The mother has a flat nipple or too tight breasts.
6. Changes in the taste or smell of breast milk due to the use of spices by a nursing mother can cause the baby to refuse the breast or cause a deterioration in appetite.
7. The temperature of food offered (very hot or cold food) can negatively affect appetite in older children.
8. Food cravings, reluctance to eat certain foods.

Timely identification of the cause (either independently by parents or with the help of a pediatrician) will help eliminate it and solve the problem.

Children from the second group can suck, chew, swallow food, but do not want to eat due to lack of appetite.

The reasons for their decreased or lack of appetite may be:

1. Somatic:

• and bacterial infections with severe intoxication syndrome and fever cause a decrease in appetite, which will be restored after the child recovers;
• diseases of the digestive tract, such as (inflammation of the gastric mucosa), enterocolitis (inflammation of the intestines), malabsorption syndrome (impaired absorption of nutrients), liver disease, can lead to a persistent decrease in appetite and the development of malnutrition (low body weight);
• deficiency of microelements in the body, such as iron (with the development of anemia), zinc;
• hypovitaminosis;
• endocrine disorders;
• chronic diseases of the respiratory system and cardiovascular system.

In any case, a thorough examination of the child is required. The disease should be diagnosed and treated, and appetite will be restored upon recovery.

1. Non-medical:

• poor nutrition (frequent snacking, excessive consumption of sweets, too high-calorie or fatty foods) - such nutrition suppresses gastric secretion and reduces the feeling of hunger;
• forced feeding contributes to the formation of a negative attitude towards food;
• lack of walks in the fresh air;
• minimal activity of the child, lack of physical activity.

1. Psychogenic factors:

• overprotection of the child;
• family troubles.

In some cases, parents worry about their “little babies” in vain: the child satisfies the body’s needs with less food than calculated by scientists based on nutritional standards. The main thing is that he does not lag behind in development and gains weight normally.

Some pediatricians believe that children intuitively choose the foods the body needs at the moment: for some time, a child may willingly eat apples or bananas, cottage cheese or kefir, and then asks for something else. The diet of healthy foods may change throughout the week. Many children prefer to eat little by little, but often - and this is precisely the diet that is most beneficial.

Nutrition that is complete in quantity and quality is an indispensable condition for the proper growth and development of the child’s body. Nature provides all the conditions for this: from the first minute of birth, a child has a well-developed sucking reflex and is able to digest and absorb nutrients.

Often the onset of food refusal coincides with the introduction of complementary foods. New food, its unfamiliar smell and color can cause a negative reaction in the baby. The child refuses to eat, but the mother stubbornly continues to feed him. The more actively the child resists, the more inhibition of the food center develops; The secretion of saliva and digestive juices stops.

If this situation repeats for several days, then a negative reflex appears at the mere sight of a plate or spoon. This is the peculiarity of the child’s psyche. That is why it is so important to understand that force-feeding a child means even more firmly entrenching appetite suppression and increasing aversion to food.

Some parents try to feed the baby using TV, books, toys, and turn meals into theater or games. You should be aware that such measures distract the child and inhibit the function of the digestive glands.

All vital processes in the human body occur in a certain rhythm and order. With properly organized nutrition, appetite also manifests itself. After eating, nutrients enter the blood, which leads to inhibition of the food center located in the brain and a decrease in the activity of the digestive and salivary glands.

And only after 3-4 hours will the composition of the blood change, as the nutrients will be carried into the tissues, which will be a signal to excite the food center. Digestive juices and saliva will begin to be released - the body is again ready to digest food and requires its intake. This is how appetite appears, that is, the desire to eat.

This is why it is important to observe intervals between feedings. Older children need to stick to the same daily routine. It becomes clear that a child has a lack of appetite when snacking between meals, which compassionate mothers and grandmothers offer him after eating what they consider to be an insufficient portion of food.

What should parents do?

If a child who is not eating enough is stunted and has trouble gaining weight, he or she needs to consult a doctor and be examined.

If a child eats little, but his height and weight are normal, then parents should not have any special worries. If the child is healthy, then the reason for poor appetite lies in the incorrect diet and organization of nutrition.

For such children, a daily routine and nutritional regimen should be organized and observed. At the same time, you must not forget to provide the child with the opportunity to exercise physical activity (in the form of exercises in the morning, outdoor games, swimming, massage).

In such cases, the only correct tactic is to feed the child according to his wishes. The offer to eat should not be intrusive, but calm and affectionate. When refusing food, there is no need to force or persuade. The child should be told that the next time he can eat will be at such and such a time. You need to remove all foods from the table until the next meal (in 3-4 hours).

Parents should stock up on endurance and patience, as this method may not produce results immediately. Experts consider such a “therapeutic and educational hunger strike,” firstly, not dangerous to the child’s health, and secondly, the only expedient way to combat lack of appetite and the ability to restore it.

In between meals, you can only give your child boiled water. Children should receive jelly and milk and sweets, cookies and tea only at the time prescribed by the diet. Otherwise, these products, without providing complete saturation, interrupt your appetite. It is advisable to give your child’s favorite dishes for dinner.

It is up to the doctor to determine the cause of poor appetite. But ensuring that the child eats with appetite is the mother’s task. Re-educating a “little one” requires patience – it can take several weeks.

If a child who eats poorly is lagging behind in weight and height, it is necessary to conduct an examination. Blood and urine tests are prescribed, stool examination for coprogram and worm eggs; consultations with a gastroenterologist, endocrinologist or other specialists (psychologist) may be needed.

When somatic diseases are identified, comprehensive treatment is carried out, which will include the use of vitamin and mineral complexes (Vitrum, Jungle Baby, Pikovit), and drugs containing levocarnitine (Elkar). Levocarnitine improves the absorption of energy by body tissues, increases the secretion of digestive juices, normalizes appetite, and helps eliminate body weight deficiency (hypotrophy).

With an older child, you can discuss what he would like to eat before starting to cook, but at the same time offer a choice of 2 specific healthy dishes for him (for example, for breakfast or), and not chips or cakes. This gives children a sense of independence, an understanding that their tastes are taken into account, but at the same time the food will be healthy.

It is not recommended to console an upset child with food (be it candy or ice cream). This type of distraction can form a clear connection between food and comfort. In adult life, such a simple and, at the same time, pleasant way to “eat up” your problems and difficulties with tasty foods can turn into a problem of excess weight. And problems will not disappear, no matter how tasty the food is.

Summary for parents

The problems of children who eat poorly affect many families. They also try to solve them in different ways: some are sophisticated in inventing tricks, while others are trying to force-feed their children. Parents must understand the futility and harm of such methods of dealing with “little ones.”

This does not mean that poor appetite is not worth paying attention to. First, you need to establish the reason why your child is not eating well. In this case, you may need the help of a pediatrician. If health does not suffer, then you should change your attitude towards the child’s nutrition and adjust his daily routine.

If a disease is discovered that is the cause of poor appetite, you should get serious about its treatment. In any of these cases, you can succeed and restore your appetite. Then the child will enjoy eating.

“The School of Doctor Komarovsky”, the theme of the issue is “I don’t want to eat”:

The baby does not eat well, is capricious, the time spent at the table can sometimes be counted in hours... What to do?

How much is little?

Let's first determine whether we understand correctly that he really doesn't eat much. Little – how much do you think? There are certain norms of daily diet (of course, they are approximate, because each baby develops in its own way and even spends a different amount of energy every day) for children of different ages and weights.

Make an approximate menu for your baby and calculate its calorie content. Required calories for children:

6 months – 1 year – 800 kcal,
1 year – 3 years – 1300–1500 kcal,
3 years – 6 years – 1800–2000 kcal,
6 years – 10 years – 2000–2400 kcal,
10 years – 13 years – 2900 kcal.

It often happens that the calories counted by parents for “little babies” exceed the daily norm. For example, children's curd cheese contains 319 kcal, one hundred grams of oatmeal - 375 kcal, and one hundred grams of banana - 95 kcal.

Why does my child eat little?

Decreased appetite can be caused by various diseases. For example, even with a banal ARVI, a persistent reluctance to eat may appear. Teeth cutting, abdominal pain, fatigue, overexcitement... - all this does not allow you to eat with pleasure.

Talk to your child, find out what bothers him, sympathize, teach him to cope with his emotions, because he can master this for a very long time, sometimes his whole life!

Well, what if everything is fine? There are no diseases or special stress, but the child is still stubborn and eats poorly?

Any living organism is endowed with various instincts to maintain its vitality. One of the main ones is the occurrence of feelings of hunger and thirst. They cannot but arise; these are the so-called “basic needs”, that is, what is necessary for survival. And if a child refuses to eat, the point is most likely not that there is something wrong with his survival instinct, but that there are some external reasons.

Try to treat this situation more simply: if he doesn’t want to eat, let him not eat. Persuasion, threats, demands will only worsen your relationship, and will show the child that he is not taken into account. that there are certain “norms” and they are higher than his needs. Such upbringing existed before, I think, mainly due to a lack of knowledge of simple psychology. My grandfather once told me when I was little: “If you don’t eat it, I’ll pour it down your collar!” The threat didn’t really have any effect, I knew he was joking, but there are families where they really poured it out! In the future, children from such families had a hard time. You can break your will, but why?..

From you, as the person closest to the child, a share of wisdom, patience, and, perhaps, intuition is required. After all, it is important to be able to distinguish a whim from a situation when the child is really already full.

The child eats very little, what to do?

Tips for everyone

Parents should serve as an example to their child of the right attitude towards food.

● Create a favorable atmosphere for eating: eat together more often, talking with each other, and not with the TV, let there be a beautiful tablecloth and serving on the table, let the dishes be decorated and conveniently arranged.
● Express your enjoyment of different foods and dishes during lunch.
● Give your child a separate plate, especially those with funny pictures on the bottom; you’ll have to finish it all to see them.
● Maybe you will like carving (the art of artistic cutting of vegetables and fruits), this is a pleasant variety for you while cooking, and it will be more fun for your child to eat funny-designed foods. Although we understand that this hobby is available mainly to those who have free time.
● Feed your baby at the rate at which he is ready to eat.
● Pay close attention to your baby’s signs of hunger or satiety, ending feedings promptly. Signs of satiety can include: drowsiness, pushing away the spoon, closing the mouth when trying to feed from a spoon.
● Don’t be annoyed if your child doesn’t eat well or refuses to eat—this may just be a developmental milestone.
● Never force feed.
● Try to have your child eat at regular times.
● Have a conversation over dinner, but don't over-entertain your baby.

A baby appeared in your family, and everything was fine until the only food for him was mother’s milk. But the child grows, his diet changes, and with this sometimes some difficulties appear. The baby suddenly begins to be capricious while eating, eats poorly or refuses food altogether. Sometimes adults, faced with a similar problem every day, simply lose their nerve, and with the help of persuasion, or even threats and punishments, they begin to force feed their child, only strengthening his aversion to food.

If there is a similar problem in your family, you first need to understand reasons for a child's refusal to eat, maybe you are just overfeeding your baby. In addition, I will try to tell you how to make the process of eating more attractive for a child, how to overcome his capriciousness and reluctance to try this or that dish. The main thing is to have patience and endurance when communicating with your baby at such moments, and then you will definitely be able to find a way out of the current situation.

Causes of poor appetite

Reasons for a child's refusal to eat there can be many, and they are not always associated with antipathy to a particular dish. Poor appetite may be a consequence of the child’s illnesses, poor nutrition, lack of routine, or the child having all sorts of fears. Let's consider the listed reasons in more detail.

Often parents come to the doctor's or psychologist's office and complain that they the child does not eat well, while a well-fed child peeks out from behind them. When it comes to the amount of food that makes up a single serving for a baby, it turns out that it would be enough for an adult. It is not surprising that the child in this case refuses to eat. And if you still manage to break the baby’s resistance, this can adversely affect both his psyche and his physical health. On the one hand, he will be forced to come to terms with obvious injustice, which in the future may lead to his complete lack of resistance to various difficulties and lack of initiative. On the other hand, pretty soon you will have to deal with another problem - your baby's excess weight. In a word, there should be moderation in everything. Children, as a rule, perfectly determine the amount of food they need, so when the child refuses to finish eating portion to the end, do not force him to do it.

Parents must always remember that a child is several times smaller than an adult, so he needs less food. Children's portions should be small, but include all the proteins, fats and carbohydrates, as well as vitamins that are necessary for the normal functioning of the baby's body.

Sometimes child's poor appetite occurs not only due to improper nutrition, but also due to the lack of a regime. They feed him not at a strictly designated time, but when necessary, so it is difficult for him to navigate the time and tune in to eating. For example, a child has just played around or got up after sleep, and he is called to the table. The situation is the opposite - the baby wants to eat, but nothing is ready yet. Children who are forced to eat not according to the regime become nervous, capricious, sleep poorly, sometimes because they are hungry, so quite soon parents turn to specialists, believing that the child is sick, whereas it is enough to just introduce and maintain a certain daily routine, and after a short time before the next meal, the child will begin to feel hungry and, accordingly, he will have an appetite.

One day I was approached by parents who claimed that they the baby eats almost nothing at the table. During the conversation, it turned out that in this family it is customary for there to always be a vase with various sweets on the table: cookies, sweets, halva. The thing is that dad had a terrible sweet tooth, and due to the nature of his professional activity he could work at home, which is why his favorite delicacies were always in a prominent place. There was also a child at home, whom the grandmother looked after. It turns out that the baby, imitating his dad, constantly chewed something sweet throughout the day and thereby suppressed his appetite. And the kind grandmother often treated him to chocolate or candy. That is why he touched almost nothing during lunch or dinner. I advised parents to give their child sweets only at strictly defined hours and to hide the vase with cookies and sweets away. Of course, for the sake of the baby’s health, his father also had to sacrifice his habits, but the parents decided to strictly adhere to the recommendations I gave. The adults talked to the grandmother and made her promise that she would treat her grandson only at breakfast or lunch, and put the sweets in a locked cupboard. In the first days, the parents had to withstand a real attack from the child, who was capricious and demanded treats. Sometimes with affection, and sometimes with severity, the parents managed to convince the baby that from now on he would receive his share of sweets and cookies only after the main meals. Soon the child returned to normal appetite, which had a positive effect on his physical well-being and mood.

My advice also had a beneficial effect on the baby’s father. Since he could no longer freely feast on food in front of the child, he began to do it secretly and in much smaller quantities. This could not but affect his figure, since he had to give up the lion's share of sweet and flour products.

Often poor appetite appears in overly impressionable children under the influence of various scary stories they have heard from their peers or from adults.

So, in my practice there was a case when a five-year-old girl who had never had problems with appetite, and suddenly she became eat badly. Her parents' attempts to somehow influence her, to force her to eat, ended, as a rule, with her simply starting to choke on food. We played various games with the girl, and in the process of interacting with her, I found out that a few days ago, in her presence, a neighbor told her mother how one woman choked on a fish bone and died. The story was most likely fictitious, since it clearly contained exaggerations and elaborate details. It is not surprising that a sensitive child began to experience fear just by looking first at fish, and then at food in general. As a result, my parents and I had to work hard to restore the girl’s former appetite.

Try to protect yourself from such situations in advance. Do not allow anyone, and also do not tell chilling stories related to food and meals in front of your children, because the consequences of this can be the most unpredictable.

It also happens that a child begins to act up at the table after visiting kindergarten. In most cases, this happens due to his natural inclination to imitate children and adults from his environment. Therefore, it is not surprising that in your child’s voice you hear notes that are completely unusual for him.

So, for example, at one time I lived with the daughter of my friends, who urgently left for a month on a business trip. She ate perfectly in the first days of living with me, but one day at dinner, instead of eating her portion, she began to pick at the plate with a fork. When I asked, “What’s the matter?” - the girl answered, clearly imitating someone from the group, that she would not eat the side dish, but, so be it, she would swallow the cutlet, and she would also take sweets. Without thinking twice, I simply sent her away from the table, saying that I needed time to create a new menu for her, which would include sweets, ice cream, cakes, and let her go hungry for two days, since previously I had simply I can't handle it.

My guest thought about the words I said for about ten minutes, then sat down silently and ate her entire dinner without a trace. Apparently, the girl reasoned this way: the weekend is approaching, and spending it on a starvation diet is not very healthy, especially since it is generally unclear when this new menu will be ready. We didn’t have any more problems with nutrition.

In other words, if you see that a child refuses to eat not due to poor health or any serious reasons, but only because of imitation of someone from the group, do not be afraid to leave him without lunch or dinner. Surely your baby will quickly understand his mistake and try to correct it.

Everything is much more serious if the reluctance to eat is associated with your baby’s poor health. It is the reduction or lack of appetite is often the first sign of a particular disease. If you have noticed a similar feature in your child before, then under no circumstances force your baby to eat at these moments. It is known that at the very beginning of the disease the body intensively fights the disease, so all efforts should be directed only to this fight. Digestion, in turn, also requires a certain amount of energy, so the less the child eats, the faster the body will cope with the disease. In such a situation, give him as much fluid as possible, which will help remove all toxins from the body.

During the illness itself children have an appetite reduced or absent altogether. Of course, the baby also needs nutrition during this period, but do not try to feed him at all costs. Portions should not be large, and food should not be fatty and difficult to digest. In addition, when your baby feels better, he will probably ask you for something to eat. Mention should be made of eating disorders directly related to appetite, such as anorexia, perversion of appetite and rumination.

Anorexia nervosa is characterized by a child's complete refusal to eat. Any attempt by his parents to feed him ends in violent protest, or even vomiting. This disease most often occurs in teenage girls, but can also occur at a younger age. As the disease progresses, you may notice that your child is losing weight dramatically. And no matter how you convince him that eating is still necessary, it leads to nothing. The child may even pretend that he is eating heavily, while after eating he induces vomiting in order to get rid of what he has eaten.

Over time, the mere thought of food becomes unbearable for him, and the mention of it often causes vomiting. As a result, such changes may occur in the body, and weight loss will become so significant that eating food will be impossible not only for psychological reasons, but also for physiological ones: the volume of the stomach decreases, food digestion slows down, and attacks of hunger completely disappear.

Anorexia is a long-term and serious illness, and to avoid it or catch it at an early stage of development, parents should closely monitor their children.

Unfortunately, the causes of anorexia nervosa are still not fully understood. For teenagers, it often begins with a very conscious diet aimed at losing weight. In young children, anorexia is usually caused by mental causes. Perhaps not the last place here is occupied by all kinds of fears.

You may suspect this disease in a child when you notice his strange behavior at the table. The baby may crush food too thoroughly, pick at the plate for a long time, and hide food, whereas such features were not observed before. Sometimes a person suffering from anorexia develops strange gastronomic preferences. For example, he does not refuse to eat only one or two dishes, whereas previously he had much more preferences. In addition, sudden weight loss can be a sign of anorexia nervosa. As weight decreases and malnutrition increases, the baby experiences the following symptoms: weakness, fatigue, dizziness, constipation, sometimes decreased blood pressure and rapid heartbeat. Very often, such children have a drop in body temperature and feel numbness in their limbs.

Treatment of anorexia should be carried out in two directions: you need to take care of both the physical and mental state of the child. On the one hand, it is necessary to restore power. On the other hand, instill in the child that others need him, that he is loved, that he has a very attractive appearance, and convince him that food is necessary for every person, since it is a source of vital energy. And for recovery to be more successful, it is advisable for the baby to at least temporarily change his usual environment.

Perversion of appetite It is rare and most often occurs in children under three years of age. In this case, the child refuses to eat regular food, preferring inedible items to it. It should be noted that children with mental retardation or any mental disorders are most often prone to this disease. Thus, infants prefer hair, paper, wool, watercolors, and slightly older children happily consume sand, soil, animal feces, leaves, etc. If you notice that your child tastes various inedible objects, you should not immediately think that he suffers from a perversion of appetite. Many healthy babies often try everything by tooth, but, having realized that this or that thing is inedible, they quickly spit it out. But if a child intensively eats inedible objects, then you should definitely show him to a doctor. As a rule, children themselves “outgrow” perversion of appetite and gradually - by the age of 3-5 years - they begin to eat normal food.

According to experts who are closely involved in this problem, pica- This is primarily a behavioral disorder. The reasons for the latter have not yet been fully studied. There is an assumption that this disease occurs due to a violation of the formation of behavioral skills or stress. Therefore, a calm environment should be created in the family. The child should not feel lonely or abandoned. But a perversion of appetite can also occur as a reaction to a lack of inorganic substances (for example, iron and zinc salts) or other vital microelements in the diet.

In short, to cure a child, it is necessary to identify and eliminate the causes of what is happening. If a perversion of appetite appears as a result of stress that the child experiences for one reason or another, it is necessary to eliminate the traumatic circumstances. You can also positively influence your child by modifying his behavior by rewarding desirable behavior and punishing negative behavior. This method usually gives good results.

The parents of a two-year-old baby came to me with a complaint that the child began to eat earth and sand. In the conversation, I found out that a critical situation had developed in the house, since the young couple had to live with the wife’s parents, who did not miss an opportunity to reproach the son-in-law for his inability to adequately support the family. This gives rise to numerous scandals, and, of course, a child often becomes a witness to them. I recommended the baby’s parents to change the environment and create a calmer atmosphere in the family. In addition, she advised all positive actions of the baby, including eating normal food, to be rewarded with praise and affectionate stroking. At the same time, the baby’s desire to try earth or other inedible objects again had to be strictly suppressed.

Quite soon the child got rid of the bad habit, he realized that as soon as he puts earth in his mouth, they begin to scold him, but in other cases they caress and praise him, so after a short time he completely changed his behavior. Of course, the result would not have been so quick if the parents had not changed their place of residence, but the restructuring of the baby’s behavior also bore fruit.

One more the reason your child refuses food Rumination, or so-called chewing gum, may occur. This disease is characterized by secondary mastication, or the chewing of food returned from the stomach back into the mouth. If your child constantly burps into the mouth and then partially swallows half-digested food, you should definitely take him to a specialist. Fortunately, this disease is quite rare and occurs in children from 3 to 12 months. You may suspect rumination in your baby if he often takes the same position: his back is arched, his abdominal muscles are tense, his head is thrown back. After burping, as a rule, part of the food is spat out or flows out of the mouth, and part is chewed again and swallowed. Sometimes chewing gum goes away on its own, but in most cases it requires treatment.

Sometimes the cause of the disease is parents’ ignorance of how, when and how much to feed the baby. Some mothers feed their baby too often and try to feed him huge amounts of milk at one time.

Rumination can also be caused by a child not being stimulated enough. In other words, if you do not have close contact with your baby, you talk and play with him little, then not only is his relationship with you disrupted, but the risk of this disease also increases.

Rumination can also occur as a response to a stressful situation in the family.

Chewing gum is scary because it disrupts the child’s normal nutrition. He looks exhausted, loses weight, and is cranky from hunger between moments of regurgitation. In addition, if left untreated, the disease can lead to dehydration, developmental delays due to poor nutrition, and even death.

Rumination is very difficult to cure, so a sick child in most cases requires hospitalization. If your baby is being treated at home, you must structure his diet in such a way that it contains a large amount of protein, which is necessary to support growth processes. Do not forget that the baby during this period needs your stimulation in order to develop normally both physically and mentally. You must strengthen your relationship with your child, which will certainly have a beneficial effect on his condition. Be sure to hold him during and immediately after feeding. Paying attention to your baby will help prevent spitting up. In addition, provide your baby with a friendly and calm atmosphere in the family. In this case, during treatment the child should be under the supervision of a pediatrician.

Is it worth making a tragedy out of the fact that a child doesn’t eat well?

Very often, parents, not having sufficient endurance and desire to treat their child with due attention, resort to forceful methods of influence or intimidation to quickly solve the problem with his feeding. Please note that by using threats and punishments, you can cause great harm to your child. In the future, such a child may turn out to be an indecisive, intimidated person, constantly doubting his own abilities, afraid of drawing attention to himself once again.

Probably every adult has had an antipathy towards certain products since childhood, which arose for seemingly no apparent reason. Try to remember why you, for example, don’t like semolina or pickle so much. It is possible that a picture will come to your mind of how a grandmother or mother, in a fit of desire to feed their child at all costs, stuffs you with another spoonful of this dish, which was the result of your dislike for it. Sometimes we can’t even remember why we don’t like the taste of a particular dish. Your children may not remember this either, but until the end of their days they may retain a dislike for the porridge that they were fed so intensely in childhood.

Let's try to avoid such disastrous consequences of parental zeal. If the child didn't eat anything at dinner, this is not a tragedy yet. Perhaps the baby simply didn’t have time to get hungry or grabbed something before eating.

Don't insist that he eat, move the plate away from him. At dinner he will definitely eat everything.

Many scientists come to the conclusion that you should not force-feed a baby, even an infant. So, if it's time for a regular feeding and your baby doesn't even think about waking up, don't wake him up. Wait until he opens his eyes and demands his portion from you. Otherwise, the baby, when asleep, will eat much less than usual. As a result, he will not be able to sleep properly or get enough food, so he will be capricious, and it will take you all day to calm him down.

In other words, you must get rid of the feeling as quickly as possible that if the baby does not eat everything that is on the plate in front of him on time, he will definitely die from dystrophy. This will not happen because the child is not as helpless and fragile as we think. If he is truly hungry, he will find an opportunity to ask you for food.

So, for example, the famous Nikitin teachers, who had seven children, were of the opinion that in no case should a child be force-fed. One day one of the guys got sick. He did not eat anything for three days, and his parents made no attempt to feed him, only gave him water. As a result, the child’s body was able to overcome the disease. The child took some food for the first time only on the fourth day of illness.

As a rule, in the second year of life, a child who previously ate everything that was on the plate in front of him becomes very picky. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that it takes him much longer to feel hungry. On the other hand, the child begins to feel like an individual, an independent person who has the right to his own preferences and choices. During this period, the baby’s tastes can change almost every week. Today he happily eats a dish, and the next he doesn’t look at it at all.

The task of parents in this situation is to maintain complete calm and restraint. Of course, you may be annoyed by the fact that you specially prepared this or that dish for your baby, spending money and time on it, and he suddenly didn’t want to eat it, whereas before such problems did not arise. It’s just that your baby is exploring this world and wants to experience different tastes, so he refuses the food he knows and demands something new.

Of course, it is quite difficult to prepare several dishes at once for one feeding. This, in general, is not required, but if you want your child to eat well, then try to make his diet as varied as possible.

Many children, switching to adult food, suddenly begin to refuse milk. Do not force your child to drink the daily amount of this valuable product at any cost if he does not want to. Otherwise, you will only instill in him an aversion to milk for the rest of his life. Wait a few days. If the child still continues to refuse milk, do not insist, but try replacing it with something of equal value. Your baby may like foods such as kefir, cheese, and cottage cheese. Over time, if you behave correctly, the child will ask for milk again, and there will be no aversion to this drink. The same applies to other products.

If a child actively refuses some food, do not force him to eat, but take, as they say, a time out. After some time, the baby will most likely return to his old preferences.

Many parents are afraid to rely solely on the tastes of their child in nutrition, believing that he is not mature enough to choose the food he needs. This is far from true. As a rule, children, even without the help of adults, are able to create a diet for themselves that would satisfy all the needs of a growing body. This has been fully proven by the famous pediatrician Clara Davis, who decided to find out what the children’s diet would be like if they were guided by their dietary preferences, if they were given a wide selection of different dishes.

For the experiment, she selected three children aged eight to ten months who had not tasted anything other than breast milk, so they did not have any food cravings. During feeding, six to eight plates with simple healthy food were placed in front of the children: vegetables, fruits, cereals, meat, brown bread, milk, etc. The kids were given help only when it was clear what they wanted to try. So, for example, when a child tried to grab something from a plate with his hand, he was given a teaspoon of this dish.

As a result of the experiment, several very important circumstances were revealed. Thus, babies who were given a choice of different foods developed well. In other words, none of them began to suffer from obesity or dystrophy. Moreover, the diet of such a child over a certain period of time included all the fats, proteins, carbohydrates and microelements necessary for a growing body. It would seem that the baby is eating in accordance with precise scientific recommendations.

And one last thing. Clara Davis was faced with the fact that children's food preferences were constantly changing. So, for example, a baby could live for several days exclusively on cereals, then began to intensively consume meat products, then switched to vegetables. In other words, the child intuitively accurately determined which substances he was currently lacking, and actively absorbed food that contained them in large quantities.

Therefore, dear parents, trust your baby.

If your child refused porridge at one meal, but ate a double or even triple portion of vegetable salad, do not make a tragedy out of it, it means that at the moment the substances contained in the salad are simply vital for him. It may be difficult for you to come to terms with this circumstance, since it will seem that the baby is not full. However, for the sake of the child’s health, both physical and psychological, you will have to somewhat reconsider your views on nutrition.

As you know, a person has intuitive knowledge of what is useful to him. That is why listen more carefully to your child.

At the same time, it is very important for parents to know what makes up healthy food. So, for example, if you start feeding your baby exclusively with sweets, guided by his desires, which are distorted in early childhood due to the frequent offering of sweets to him, then this is unlikely to benefit him.

A woman, the mother of a five-year-old girl, once came to see me and complained that her daughter practically did not eat dishes that did not have added sugar. Before she ate a few spoons of porridge or soup, her parents had to put a lot of sweets on the table or prepare dishes with a sweet taste in advance. Sometimes it got to the point that she demanded that her borscht be sweetened. The baby in the family was the only one and long-awaited, so all her whims were fulfilled unquestioningly.

The little tyrant made full use of her parents' love, so she regularly ate up on sweets, chocolates and cookies. Of course, such a circumstance could not but affect her figure. It had not yet reached the point of being overweight, but the girl looked quite well-fed. Of course, first of all, serious changes in the behavior of parents were required. I advised the mother to be a little stricter with her daughter: if she refuses to eat without, in her opinion, proper reward, do not insist, but simply remove the plate until the next feeding, eliminating, if possible, various snacks between meals. In addition, the parents should have worked with their daughter’s character and tried to instill in her objective self-esteem. But the parents were able to get rid of the child’s whims forever only when they had to leave the girl with a large relative for some time. Here no one indulged her desires, so she soon got used to building normal relationships with others. Therefore, when the parents returned, they did not recognize their child, who had forgotten about all his former habits.

Some parents are faced with the problem of playing at the table. The baby, having barely learned to use a spoon, suddenly begins to eat little, devoting most of his time to playing with food, with a spoon, cup and other cutlery. This happens primarily because he is no longer as hungry as at the very beginning of feeding.

One day, the mother of a two-year-old baby came to me and complained that every feeding ends with the child running away from her, and she follows him with a plate and spoon, feeding him the next portion of food at the appropriate moment. During the conversation, it turned out that at first the baby eats on his own, as he gets full, he begins to play with objects lying on the table, and then he generally stands on a chair or runs out from behind the table. I advised the mother to stop feeding the child and generally remove food from the table as soon as he begins to indulge. This means that at this moment he has partially or completely satisfied his hunger, so you should not force feed him.

As soon as the child stops paying attention to the food in front of him, he can be considered to have eaten enough. Despite some disagreement with my recommendations (the mother believed that the baby should definitely eat the entire portion without leaving a trace), the boy’s parents nevertheless began to remove the plate of food as soon as he began to play at the table and fidget. As a result, the child soon realized that at the first sign of overindulgence, food was taken away, so he began to eat better. In addition, the boy had the opportunity to set the portion size he needed to be full, so by the next feeding he was so hungry that his parents had less and less problems with his appetite.

If your baby becomes fussy, demanding his plate of food back when you clear it from the table, give him another opportunity to eat. The main thing in this case is to maintain patience and endurance. Calmly explain to him that he shouldn’t play with food; that’s what toys are for. When the child turns away from the plate again, remove what is left and try to switch his attention to something else.

Teach your child that as soon as he is full, the food is immediately put away until the next meal. You should not feed him later, as this will only kill his appetite.

If your baby first refuses to eat and then becomes very hungry, feed him a little earlier than the set time. Surely he will happily eat everything you offer him. If the child leaves food on the plate again, it means that he has had enough of what he has already eaten. And you should reconsider children's portions. Perhaps you are giving him too much food for one meal, and only because of this you are having various problems related to the child’s nutrition.

From early childhood, give your child the opportunity to choose his diet and decide for himself how much food he needs. At the same time, try to exclude products that are not only useless, but even harmful to a growing body, especially in large quantities. Then your baby will be able to correctly compose his diet without mistakes and receive all the substances necessary for life.

How to make the process of eating food interesting.

Sometimes situations happen in life when a child, for unknown reasons, reasons why he doesn't eat well. Some children sometimes develop such aversion to food that they do not eat anything at all during the day. Such a “diet” can even lead to fainting from hunger. In such a situation, it is necessary to somehow influence the baby, for example, to make eating more attractive and interesting.

While feeding, you can play with your baby using various nursery rhymes or short fairy tales. So, for example, if you have two children with a small age difference, tell them a fairy tale in which there will be two characters competing with each other while eating, for example, about two monkeys.

“Two monkeys lived on one green island. A storm that hit the island carried the monkeys' parents out to sea, and they were left alone. When the monkeys got hungry, they jumped through the trees for a long time until they found a palm tree on which tasty and aromatic bananas grew. The monkeys attacked the bananas. “Am,” said one monkey. “Am,” another echoed her. Come on, which monkey will eat more bananas? (At this moment, you must deftly put portions of food into the babies’ mouths or make sure that they eat on their own.) Finally, the monkeys were full and thought that life was wonderful, so they can frolic and play for their own pleasure.”

The plot of a fairy tale can develop from feeding to feeding. The main characters will find themselves in the most incredible situations and, most importantly, come out of them with honor. A child, captivated by a fairy tale, will probably automatically put spoon after spoon into his mouth.

But this method also has its drawbacks: the baby is distracted from the meal itself. While listening to stories in fascination, the child is simply unable to fully experience the taste of food, which to some extent interferes with the digestion process.

As you noticed, the tale used an element of rivalry. The child, trying to get ahead of his dining companion and receive well-deserved praise, strives to finish his portion as quickly as possible. Of course, this helps significantly with feeding when there are two or three babies in a family. What to do if the child is the only one? In this case, you can invite your baby’s friends or someone from the household to the table. In addition, eating together is in itself attractive for the child, since it allows you to once again communicate with friends.

Good results are obtained by using a puppet theater during feeding. Don’t rush to buy a lot of dolls; just one is enough, which will talk to the baby, act out various scenes and even feed. As a rule, a child, getting used to not listening to his parents (due to their incorrect approach to education), gladly follows all the recommendations of one or another fairy-tale character. The main thing is that the one who plays the role of the puppeteer hides well behind the table or behind a screen and the doll appears only when the child sits down at the table. The rest of the time it should be carefully hidden. Otherwise, the baby may experience stress when one day he discovers, instead of the living doll he is used to, the head of his favorite character with a piece of fabric.

When the child grows up and eating does not disgust him, puppet shows during meals can be stopped by saying that the main character has gone to other kids who need help, since he was convinced of Sashenka or Nastenka’s ability to eat on their own.

When using dolls to develop a child’s strong interest in eating, as in everything else, moderation should be observed.

You can often find a situation where the whole family gathers to feed the baby. Mom, for example, brings a full spoon to the child’s mouth, dad, grandparents put on real puppet shows, just so that the baby at some point gets too excited and loses his vigilance, and the mother manages to put another spoon into his mouth. Of course, such events, and even three or four times a day, are quite tiring. Isn't it better to let your baby get hungry and let him choose what he wants to eat, rather than spending so much time and effort on just feeding?

Theatrical dolls are excellent substitutes for ordinary toys. You can sit your child at the table with his favorite toy - a teddy bear or a doll. The feeding process in this case is constructed in two ways. An empty plate is placed in front of the toy, and either the baby himself tries to “feed” his pet, or you alternately offer the spoon to the child and then to the toy. Be sure to praise the dish offered to your baby, convince him that, for example, the bear really liked the porridge, so he asks you for more. Praise your child if he shows independence and tries to eat or treat a toy himself. With older children, you can come up with fun names for each dish.

The personal example of parents is very important in feeding a child. If your family has a tradition of getting the whole family together for every lunch, breakfast and dinner, do not deprive your child of the pleasure of sitting and eating with everyone. Seeing how adults eat with pleasure, praising the hostess, he will probably reach for the spoon. On the other hand, never show your dissatisfaction with a particular dish in front of him. Observing the disgusted expression on the face of his father or mother, the baby will very soon begin to imitate them, so you should not be surprised if at one point he refuses to eat something that caused a negative reaction from his parents.

In other words, if you want your child to eat well and not have a sharp aversion to this or that dish, you must first of all monitor your mood and attitude towards food in general and this or that dish in particular. Only then will you be able to develop an adequate reaction in your baby to any healthy food.

The aesthetic presentation of food is of great importance. If the food is served on a beautiful plate, decorated, and even exuding a surprisingly tasty aroma, then, even without the proper appetite, the baby will undoubtedly eat everything offered with pleasure. But an unattractive type of food, repulsive, and even more so dirty dishes can once and for all cause a child to have an aversion to a particular food. Therefore, every meal should be a feast not only for the stomach, but also for the eyes.

Invite your child to set the table himself: fold the napkins beautifully, arrange the cutlery correctly. Moreover, you and your child can arrange a real surprise for your household by making various figures, candy bowls and vases from origami-style paper, cutting out all kinds of napkins from colored paper and using it all to decorate the table. Surely all these preparations will help the baby tune in to the upcoming meal, lift his spirits and allow him to feel important, because he, as an adult, is participating in a common cause. Undoubtedly, you will not be able to celebrate such holidays every day, but the memories of this event will remain in your child’s memory for a long time, and his appetite will improve significantly.

Already from the age of one and a half years, children are quite capable of making their feasible contribution to preparing the table for meals, carrying unbreakable objects and non-sharp utensils from the sideboard.

Be sure to praise your baby for the help he gives you. Then any meal will be painted for him in light, rainbow colors. In addition, if the baby feels respect and support from adults, he will be treated like an adult, and he will quickly lose the desire to be capricious. Moreover, a child with normal self-esteem and self-esteem, as a rule, does not have problems related to eating.

Probably everyone has known the slogan since childhood: “When I eat, I am deaf and dumb!” To some extent, it is convenient because it eliminates the possibility of choking during a conversation while eating. However, it should be noted that our ancestors had a completely different opinion. Eating food was an extra reason for them to talk. This, on the one hand, made it possible to once again communicate with family and friends, to tune into a friendly mood, on the other hand, it excluded any haste. During the smoothly flowing conversation, food was chewed slowly and carefully. Perhaps this is why people had fewer digestive problems than now, when almost any meal is taken “on the run.”

Do not rush your child, do not try to push a fair amount of all kinds of food into him as quickly as possible. Your meals together should be accompanied by calm conversation. In this way, the child will have a positive attitude towards food, because it is at this time that he can learn a lot of interesting things from his relatives and speak out on an equal footing with the older members of the family. Be sure that such meals will have a beneficial effect on both his digestion and psyche.

To stimulate your baby's interest in food, you can involve him in the actual preparation of certain dishes. Of course, you can hardly entrust your child with any complex operations in the kitchen, but he is capable of making a feasible contribution to this difficult task. So, a four-year-old child can perfectly wash potatoes, make a pie or cut out cookies. The main thing is to praise him for his diligence, even if something didn’t work out for him, because the main thing is not the result, but his desire to help you and the preparation for the meal itself.

Of course, the active participation of a child in cooking can create a lot of unnecessary problems for a mother or grandmother. However, if you want your baby to have a great appetite and develop well, you will have to make some sacrifices. In addition, every day the child will do better and better, so pretty soon you will get an excellent assistant in him.

Thus, temporary inconveniences can bring quite effective results: good baby's appetite and its accelerated development, since kitchen operations require certain efforts of will and mental expenditure.

Already at the table, when all the family members have gathered, be sure to draw the attention of those present to the fact that the child took part in the preparation of this or that dish. Everyone's surprise and praise will help him feel needed and important. In addition, under the admiring glances of his relatives, he will not be able to refuse the food, in the preparation of which he himself participated.

It has long been noted that a child begins to eat much better when he learns to eat on his own. Perhaps he is simply interested in mastering a new object - a spoon, and also, to some extent, joining the world of adults. Of course, this is not as simple a task as it may seem to an adult, so in the first days after the baby learns to hold a spoon, every feeding will probably be accompanied by soiled clothes and pieces of food scattered throughout the room.

Be patient, because how quickly the baby learns to eat on his own depends on his desire to eat all the food offered, and even his mental development.

The child should try his hand at this as early as possible, because the faster he picks up a spoon, the faster he learns to use this device, the fewer problems you will have with feeding. Yes, willy-nilly you will have to face certain kinds of difficulties, but the results will meet your expectations: the baby’s appetite will definitely improve.

As soon as the child learns to eat his own food in 10-15 minutes, you should completely stop feeding him with a spoon. Sometimes parents themselves do not allow their child to take the initiative, fearing for the cleanliness of the house. And then he reaches the age of two and manages to get used to being fed, and suddenly they hand him a spoon and demand that he eat on his own! Of course, this turn of events creates many problems for him. The baby is capricious, does not want to eat with a spoon, and loses his appetite. Tension appears in the child's relationship with his parents. In most cases, it all ends with the mother or father breaking down and starting to spoon feed the baby again. But you shouldn't do this. If for one reason or another you missed the moment when the child himself reached for the spoon, try to teach him how to use the device. You may have to help your child get the spoon to his mouth at first. Gradually, the baby will do better and better, and after some time he will be able to cope with food on his own. At the moment when the child tries to feed himself, it is very important for parents to remain calm, patiently guiding his hand, otherwise with sudden movements or shouting you can unwittingly instill in the baby an aversion to this or that food.

Probably the most effective way to maintain a child's appetite is to be attentive to all his desires regarding food and not interfere with his determination of what he wants. Even if he gives preference to one dish and does not touch another at all, there is no need to sound the alarm; most likely, his tastes will change after some period of time. Your main task is to provide your baby with varied and nutritious nutrition.

Often, parents simply do not know what to do when the baby stubbornly purses his lips and turns away from the food offered to him. Many cannot stand it and turn to violent methods, which usually lead to the child beginning to experience an aversion to a certain type of food. And after this, problems related to the baby’s psyche and self-esteem may begin.

I hope this publication will help you avoid such troubles and indicate an acceptable way out of any difficult situation related to food in one way or another. Your baby, of course, deserves more than constant threats and prodding, so try to find the key to your child, which will allow you not to have problems feeding him, and will save time and energy. The recommendations presented in this book will help you, first of all, get rid of unnecessary worries, reconsider some of your views on the nutrition process, and also find those means and methods that would interest your baby in eating, reduce or even eliminate the likelihood of developing aversion to certain foods.

As a rule, all parents want their children to devour breakfast, lunch and dinner on both cheeks and, at the same time, still ask for more. In real life, the opposite picture is more common: mom, dad, grandparents literally “lean” on their beloved child with a request to eat another spoon for mom, another spoon for dad... And the child sits with his lips tightly pressed together, sometimes it even comes to tears or, he obediently eats all the spoons offered to him “for mom, for dad...”, but, at the end of the meal, gives everything he has eaten back.

Let's figure it out - is it useful and necessary to force-feed a child?

If your baby (we are talking about children over 1 year old, but at the same time they do not cease to be babies, at least until school age), grows and develops in the same way as their peers, and at the same time feels great, but eats exactly half the portion of the neighbor Mashenka (or Tanechka), don’t worry and leave him alone: ​​he has such a metabolism, he has enough nutrients in the amount of food that enters his stomach.

It’s a completely different matter if your child is not exactly a cut below the boys and girls of his age, however, there is no universal recipe here either.

First of all, look at dad and mom more closely and, if it turns out that their height is below average, then what do we expect from our son or daughter? (As they say, an apple from an apple tree...).

You shouldn’t force such a child to eat like everyone else, and it’s even more unacceptable to force-feed him (imagine yourself in his place), this can lead to an even greater decrease in appetite, even leading to indigestion. Such a child should have a diet appropriate to his physical development(that is, his true height and weight), and not age standards Typically, during puberty, such children begin to grow quickly and catch up with their peers.

Unfortunately, much more often, underweight occurs as a result of poor nutrition (or past illnesses). And here a vicious circle arises: as a result of long-term unbalanced (usually in terms of the quantity and quality of protein) nutrition, the activity of digestive juices decreases, the digestion and absorption of nutrients worsens, which, in turn, leads to a decrease in appetite and a further decrease in body weight.

Here parents need to understand one thing: normal desire to eat occurs in a person only when the stomach fully is relieved of the next portion of food (in children, as a rule, this happens 3-4 hours after feeding), but in a child with a decreased appetite, as you remember, the secretion of digestive juices is reduced, and the usual portion of food simply does not have time to properly digest and “leave” the stomach, if in this case you still force the child to eat a certain amount of food, he may vomit as a protective reflex from overfeeding, and with frequent repetitions of this situation, the development of habitual vomiting is possible not only during feeding , but even from one type of food (in practice, we, practicing pediatricians, encounter this much more often than we would like, and, what is more sad, some parents try to treat vomiting with medication without going into the causes of its occurrence, which can lead to overloading the child’s body with medications, and further - to drug allergies or inflammation of the gastric and intestinal mucosa).

How can you help your child break this vicious circle and teach him to receive not only benefits from food, but also pleasure?

Here are some practical tips for parents:

• should strictly observe the feeding regime and do not give anything to the child in the intervals between meals, including juices (especially sweet ones - banana, peach, etc.) and even water. Then the child willingly starts eating with a liquid dish.
• perhaps one of the most important points is calm behavior of adults during feeding (maybe this is the most difficult thing, but if the mother cannot show great patience and restraint, then what do we want from the child?)
• if the baby is due for the next feeding refuses to eat, That skip it(remember patience and endurance).
• for some time (1.5-2 months for children over one year old!) you can use the so-called free feeding method, that is, feed the child only the dishes he wants. In the future, quietly (without focusing the child’s attention on this), gradually change the recipe, adding the necessary products.
• try to make your food look appetizing, buy your child beautiful and comfortable dishes (let him choose what he wants), set the table beautifully.
• try to prevent your child from sitting at the table in an excited state, play a quiet game with him before feeding or read a book for 10-15 minutes.
• some children eat poorly in the morning, if they are offered breakfast immediately after waking up when they are half asleep. This must be taken into account and feed the child only after he is actively involved in the daily routine - washes himself, gets dressed, and sometimes plays a little. You can offer this child two breakfasts: I - tea, juice or compote immediately after waking up, and II - something more “substantial”... (but keep in mind that lunch time in this case may be pushed back somewhat later, maybe even after sleep ).
• Children often refuse to eat hot summer days(which is especially important at this time) - the fact is that with excessive loss of fluid, the production of digestive juices reflexively decreases (this is especially important in the nutrition of a sick child, as will be discussed below). Therefore, in summer it is recommended to change feeding schedule, and during the midday heat, offer the child not lunch, but a second breakfast, for example, kefir, cottage cheese, yogurt or light porridge, fruit, juice), and after sleep, a sufficiently hungry child will easily cope with the dishes that you have prepared for him for lunch.
• and finally a few words about feeding a sick child. As a rule, in 80% of cases, children get sick with an increase in body temperature, and sometimes vomiting and diarrhea are added to this, which can very quickly lead to dehydration (as noted above, in this state the activity of the digestive processes sharply decreases), so please remember , one very simple and almost universal rule (with the exception of rare severe heart and kidney diseases), a sick child needs to be given water, and do not force him to drink 2-3 glasses of liquid at once (which can provoke vomiting), but offer little by little, 20-30 ml (1-2 tablespoons) of mineral water (preferably without gases and slightly warmed), tea , fruit juice or herbal decoction, every 10-15 minutes. As for food, any easily digestible food that does not irritate the mucous membranes of the mouth and stomach is suitable, little by little, but more often (milk, kefir, yogurt, semi-liquid cereals), but Never force feed your child. You can not only cause negative emotions in him, but also aggravate the course of the disease, forcing the sick body to spend precious energy on digesting food rather than fighting the infection. When the condition improves and the body temperature normalizes, the baby himself will ask for food and, rest assured, will more than catch up with what he “didn’t finish” during the acute period of the illness.

In conclusion, I would like to say once again that with great desire, common sense and sufficient patience, you will succeed in your desire to raise your child strong and healthy.

I wish you good luck in the most difficult (but rewarding) task.

Discussion

We also periodically have problems with our appetite - sometimes it eats up everything you give, sometimes a bird pecks at some food and then runs on. At first she forced me, worried me, then I remembered myself as a child, read articles by pediatricians and spat. She fell behind her son: when she wants, she will eat. The only thing I worry about is vitamins with microelements and the right amount of nutrients. Therefore, during periods of “fasting” I make sure to give vitamins and Pediasure Maloyezhka - at least everything is balanced there - vitamins, proteins, fats and carbohydrates - and you don’t have to worry about the child’s health. Pediasure drinks with pleasure, especially chocolate, he even puts bottles of it in his cart in stores)

Good afternoon Irina!
We have this situation: My son is 1.4 years old and he eats very little, sometimes he even doesn’t eat at all. His daily diet: one spoon of hot food. These are horns, pilaf and everything! Naturally without meat. I can write in more detail if you respond to my letter.

01/31/2017 20:49:30, Arman

Poor appetite can have both medical and psychological problems. If this is not a disease, then the pediatrician recommended that we feed according to our appetite. And to have this appetite, you need to spend energy, and not sit in front of the TV. That's exactly what she said. And my other friend was advised to contact a child psychologist and look for the reason together. I like this psychologist, I recommend [link-1]

yulanka Hello, I have the following question: my child is 2 years and 6 months old, a boy, after eating he has the urge to vomit but does not vomit.... what could this be???? and often complains that his tummy hurts... he always eats poorly, feeding is a big problem with crying and persuasion... but at the same time he also sucks the breast. Thank you very much, does anyone have a similar problem and do you know what it is? I ask mommies to comment, thank you. Julianna.

I also ran after my elder all day with a spoon, but it turned out that we had roundworms.

The best thing is not to be lazy and get examined by a gastroenterologist to find out why the child’s food takes too long to digest (and therefore, he is not hungry). Our child had food lying in his stomach for half a day, and stupid parents would have continued to try to feed him “with fairy tales” if he had not once gone to the hospital by ambulance, where he was given a basic ultrasound of his stomach and shown stretching from forced feeding. No one feeds the child anymore with persuasion. Because the food was not digested, medications were prescribed. Now everything is fine, the child is strong and healthy.

So we have such a problem. My daughter began to eat poorly, we are 1.9 years old, we already eat everything except milk, we don’t eat porridge or kefir, we eat baby porridge from packets and yogurt, and now we don’t eat that either in the morning, in the morning he doesn’t want to eat anything, at lunchtime At the very least we eat soup, but eating away is a problem again! He doesn’t eat at all, or he eats a couple of spoons and still nothing! I don’t know what to do or what to do!

Mommies, try infatrini - a mixture especially for little ones.
The neighbor’s baby refused to eat at all and was constantly naughty! She hasn’t even tried anything with games, she eats a spoon or two and that’s it, whims. The pediatrician recommended infatrini to them, it’s high in calories and it turns out to be about 100 calories, but in a regular mixture there are only 70, no more. We grew up on it)))

If my child ate little, but was not stunted in growth, I would not worry.

02/21/2010 21:14:01, assa12

Hello mommies, we are 1 year 10 months old, we haven’t eaten for 4 months, I give everything from a spoon myself, the last three days have been terrible, he doesn’t eat or drink. I think it’s whims, dad is used to giving the baby the whole arsenal of toys at the table, I removed it - the result of hysteria and reluctance Yes. I’m sitting and writing, dad is going to bed, 4 months ago I weaned myself from crib, I hear the crib rocking again. I think when there are problems with a child, the cause should be looked for in adults.

09.11.2008 23:58:36, Yana

Our problem is different - we have periods of love for food... Let's say that now a child is a fan of meat, all other food is regarded as an attempt to poison)), a month ago the same story with cottage cheese, before that - with vegetables, as soon as The child will try a new product, will not agree to anything else, only loves his own mixture and drinks it all the time, and he simply hates fruits (in principle, he generally hates everything sweet). We are 1 year 2 months

09/15/2008 23:25:23, Anna

I agree with Nadezhda. I started complementary feeding with fruit juice, then puree. The result is that my son did not like the taste of vegetable purees, either jarred or homemade. He still (he's almost 1.5 years old) doesn't like vegetables except potatoes and cauliflower.

I can also give advice for those who have problems with adding porridge, mine also refused at first, I added sugar, but to no avail. And I tried to grate fruits into it, for example a banana, and she began to eat all my porridge and never had any problems with it again! :)

08/19/2008 22:23:53, hope

My daughter is 11.5 months old, and during all this time we have never had problems with appetite. I think that this is my merit, because when I saw that the child was losing interest in food, I immediately came up with something new, or rather added something new to the old. In the morning we eat pureed cottage cheese, for lunch, pureed meat and vegetables, and in the evening either porridge with fruit or a banana, and at night after washing I give her a jar of the mixture. Not everything is always eaten to the end, but I don’t worry about this - the main thing is that she plays and grows :) I think that the main thing is to start complementary feeding correctly. You should definitely start with VEGETABLE puree, and not with fruit puree, because once the child learns that there is something tastier, he will not even look in the direction of vegetables. And of course, it’s better to cook everything yourself, and not buy this canned nonsense, you don’t know what’s put in there and WHO put it there. I myself worked in factories and I know how irresponsibly people treat their work there... it fell on the floor, picked it up and packed it, no big deal... but what if someone sneezes there? The child must be loved!
And by the way, why didn’t anyone talk about salt? When my baby started turning up her nose at the usual vegetable puree, the next day I prepared the same thing, but added a little salt to it, and she ate everything without whims, since then there have been no problems. Or maybe we still have everything ahead... :)

08/19/2008 14:37:57, hope

Poor appetite or its sudden deterioration is a very common situation that cannot but worry parents.
Practice shows that the more parents try to use various tricks and tricks, the less and less often they work.

What to do?

In some cases, there may be completely objective and quite serious reasons for decreased appetite.

Appetite is always a state with a “plus” sign. In ancient times, an employee was required to be fed before being hired. And they took it only if he ate with a good appetite - this was considered a sign of health.

In the modern world, with an abundance and variety of food, as well as in the presence of various stresses, the situation is no longer so clear-cut. But the assessment of the condition of an adult by his appetite remains.

But adults grow out of children. And it is from childhood that our many eating habits and addictions come to us.

Here we could talk about the formation of correct eating behavior and the rules for “measuring appetite” in children, but this is too broad a topic and we will ,which will take place on October 10 and 11. And in this article I will tell you about the reasons why your child may have a decreased appetite.

It is very important to be able to distinguish a true decrease in appetite from a false one. With a false decrease in appetite, the child has no problems with food or health, but the parents are unhappy with the amount of food eaten.

Be sure to pay attention if your child has:

1. Hypotrophy (a chronic nutritional disorder in which an insufficient amount of nutrients enters the body or their absorption is impaired, which leads to loss of body weight. Such children look thin, pale, their subcutaneous fat layer is very thin.
   
2. Signs of hypovitaminosis (vitamin deficiency) and microelements. General signs of hypovitaminosis include: decreased immunity, a tendency to frequent infections and their protracted course; fatigue and general weakness; decreased emotional activity (the child’s interest in what is happening around decreases). External manifestations of hypovitaminosis can be: dry/pale/flaky skin, persistent “jams” can be observed in the corners of the mouth, the fragility of hair and nails increases, they become dull.

   An initial diagnosis of the state of their child’s appetite and its basic correction can be carried out by every parent who has a certain set of knowledge and skills on the issue of nutrition and complementary feeding.

   To obtain this knowledge, you need to master a lot of literature. You still need the same amount of time to try to put everything you read into practice, then analyze the situation and take only the most effective from what happened and finally implement it into your life...

   Children grow up quickly. A solution is needed here and now. Not everyone gets a second chance to “rehearse” motherhood. The shortest way to achieve results in the art of motherhood is to ask and/or learn from someone who knows and can.

   And now you have a wonderful opportunity to deal with the issue of complementary feeding and your child’s appetite once and for all!
   On October 10 and 11, my original Internet training “Complementary feeding from A to Z” will take place.