What to do if your child has anorexia

Many children suffer from picky eating and anorexia, which has a lot to do with the parents themselves. If parents can provide comprehensive and reasonable feeding in the early stage of adding complementary foods, it is easy to avoid the formation of picky eating and anorexia in children. Generally, when parents choose food for their children, they will think about what their children like to eat, but rarely think about what their children need to eat, what they should eat, and what to eat to achieve nutritional balance. So what should parents do if children have picky eating and anorexia? Let's take a look at it below.

1. The impact of mistakes or failures in adding complementary foods

Wrong taste stimulation. A baby's sense of taste and smell is most sensitive between 6 and 12 months. If sweet, fragrant, salty or oily foods are added too early, it will have a strong stimulation on the baby's developing taste buds, making it difficult for the baby to accept original or bland foods and water in the later stages.

Complementary food is introduced too late or too slowly. Babies should start adding complementary foods after 6 months. If we miss the best time for the development of taste, smell and chewing function, and miss the normal transition from liquid food to semi-liquid food to solid food, it may cause the baby to have difficulty in weaning and become addicted to milk and lose appetite.

2. Influence of family members, especially parents’ eating habits

Adults are role models for babies and babies are copies of adults. Family members, especially parents, tend to arrange three meals a day for their baby according to their own preferences, and inadvertently evaluate the quality of food in front of the baby, expressing their likes or dislikes for certain foods. All of this will be recorded in the brain of the "smart and studious" little baby, and he will therefore reject certain foods.

The food types are monotonous and the cooking methods are repetitive. Babies like new things, and they will definitely lose interest if they are exposed to the same food for a long time.

The impact of television advertising. The advertising slogan "Children all eat this kind of food" makes it easy for babies to accept the snacks or fast food in the advertisement.

3. The influence of baby's psychology and personality factors

Babies with different personalities and temperaments react very differently to new and unfamiliar things. For example, a baby who is naturally curious will be brave enough to try new things, while a sensitive and cautious baby may be afraid and reject the food he or she is exposed to for the first time.

Forcing the baby to eat will stimulate rebellious psychology. Criticizing, scolding, and forcing your baby to finish a meal with tears in his eyes may temporarily meet his nutritional needs, but the conflicting emotions or fear caused may reinforce his picky eating behavior.

In order to get the baby to eat a bite of food, they chase and coax the baby, turning eating into an emotional bargaining chip. Babies will use this to show their uniqueness, or to exchange for family attention, desired food, toys or games, opportunities to play, etc.

Because the baby eats too slowly or makes the surrounding environment dirty, the baby is scolded or simply fed by adults. The baby will develop a fear of eating by himself or become dependent on adults to feed him.

Many parents like to let their children watch TV while they are eating, because it is easier to feed them this way. In fact, this practice is very wrong, because it will distract children's attention from food and also affect their gastrointestinal digestion and absorption. Children should eat attentively during meals and cannot play while eating. Playing while eating is also the main reason for children to develop picky eating and anorexia.