What are the reasons for children's recent loss of appetite?

Many parents have found that their children have recently lost their appetite and do not like to eat. Many mothers are very worried because if children do not eat, it will affect their physical development and have a bad influence on their growth. Some parents will immediately take their children to check whether they are sick. In fact, children’s loss of appetite is mostly due to non-pathological reasons. So, what are the specific reasons for children’s loss of appetite?

1. Several reasons why parents think their baby has poor appetite:

1. The amount of food eaten by babies is not comparable

Due to the influence of factors such as genetics, environment, body shape, and activity level, normal babies have very different individual nutritional requirements, and their appetites are bound to vary as well. Therefore, mothers must not compare their children's food intake to determine whether their children have a loss of appetite.

It is also worth mentioning that some loss of appetite is mistakenly diagnosed as loss of appetite because the amount of food the child eats is different from what the parents expect.

2. The baby’s appetite is not stable

Your baby's appetite may sometimes increase or decrease slightly periodically. These are mostly normal physiological phenomena and there is no need to worry. Babies often have loss of appetite, anorexia or reduced food intake in summer. This is because in order to regulate body temperature, more blood flows to the body surface, and the supply to internal organs is relatively reduced, which affects gastric acid secretion and leads to reduced digestive function. In addition, the weather is hot and humid, children do not rest and sleep well, their nerve centers are in a tense state, and the activity levels of certain endocrine glands in the body also change, all of which affect gastrointestinal activity. Another influencing factor is that drinking a lot of water dilutes the gastric juice, which greatly reduces appetite.

3. Loss of interest in favorite foods

Various factors in life often affect appetite. As long as you are not in a bad mood and are in good health, you don't need to worry too much about it.

4. If your baby refuses to eat, don’t force him to eat.

From a nutritional point of view, if you can get the same calories from foods other than rice (such as bread, noodles, sweets), then there will be no problem. Sometimes children may have a poor appetite due to some reasons (feeling unwell or eating too much at the last meal). At this time, do not force the child to eat. If you let him skip a meal, he may eat better at the next meal.

2. What causes loss of appetite?

When the baby has a loss of appetite, the mother should first pay attention to whether the following situations occur:

1. Disease and trace element deficiency

Your baby may have a loss of appetite due to physical discomfort, oral diseases, zinc deficiency, etc.

2. Bad habits and eating habits

I have developed a habit of eating snacks and feel no enjoyment in meals. Improper ways of giving snacks, irregular meal times, and drinking too much milk, juice, or other beverages before meals can all cause babies to lose their appetite when eating.

3. Insufficient chewing ability

The addition of complementary foods is unreasonable. Some children have not practiced chewing since childhood and swallow everything whole. If they encounter slightly hard food, they either spit it out or hold it in their mouths. In order to get their children to swallow food, parents feed them large amounts of soup to dilute the stomach acid. Over time, the child's appetite decreases.

4. Poor physical and emotional condition

If the baby is not active enough, the food has not been fully digested and he does not feel hungry. The baby is too tired or overexcited and wants to sleep during meals or has no appetite, which affects his appetite.

5. Improper parenting methods

Is the parenting method appropriate? Is there any over-pampering or indulgence? Does the mother over-force the child to eat during meals? Does she create a pleasant dining atmosphere for the child?

6. Severe loss of appetite accompanied by the following conditions should be considered as a possible disease:

Severe loss of appetite accompanied by mental depression and low fever may be caused by tuberculosis infection; severe loss of appetite accompanied by abdominal pain, bloody stools, etc. may be caused by gastrointestinal ulcers, parasitic infections, etc.; in addition to loss of appetite, there are also phenomena such as slow reaction, rough skin and poor development, which may be hypothyroidism; severe loss of appetite accompanied by sweating, skull softening, etc. may be caused by rickets; full-term newborns refusal to eat often indicates a serious illness, and attention should be paid to meningitis, sepsis, etc.

There are many reasons for children's recent loss of appetite. Parents can supplement their children with more trace elements, such as zinc, calcium, iron, etc. At the same time, you can also learn some Chinese medicine massage and perform acupoint massage before going to bed, which can effectively enhance your baby's appetite. However, if a child often suffers from loss of appetite and growth becomes slow, he or she should be taken to the hospital for examination.