With the arrival of a baby in the family, parents have many questions that require immediate solutions. Usually, mothers are most worried about making sure that the baby is comfortable, warm, sleeps soundly and eats well. Most people are often worried about the baby’s poor appetite. This situation can arise for many reasons; it always requires a solution.
Infant's refusal to feed
What is appetite and how is it formed?
Appetite is classified as a complex of sensations and emotions that are associated with certain foods. It is one of the most important indicators of health, normal development and well-being of the baby.
In infants, a good appetite is inextricably linked with receiving tasty milk on demand. It will also be complemented by a feeling of comfort from the warmth of the mother’s body. Appetite is formed based on experience, parental actions and attitude towards the child’s nutrition. In addition, it is influenced by individual characteristics, such as habits, activity or slowness.
Reasons for a child's refusal to eat
Baby refuses breastfeeding at 6 months
Individual food preferences begin to form in a child from the age of one year. A baby's refusal to breastfeed or formula in the first months of life always causes serious concern among parents.
Important! If the baby does not want to eat, then you need to find out the cause of this condition as soon as possible.
Changed taste
The reason that a baby refuses to eat may be the changed taste of mother's milk. This can happen as a result of the fact that the day before the woman might have eaten something sour, sweet or salty. Everything that the mother consumes inevitably affects the taste of the milk. In addition to nutrition, hormonal status, psychological state, physical activity, and the use of cosmetics in the breast area can have a negative impact.
Crying newborn won't latch on
Food temperature
When breastfeeding, there are no problems with the temperature of food; the baby receives milk, which ensures a normal digestion process. When feeding with formula, it is very important to ensure that the food enters the body warm. Cold or, conversely, hot food has a negative impact on digestion, and as a result, the baby may refuse to eat.
Diseases of the mouth and ears
If a baby refuses to eat, then parents must make sure that he does not have stomatitis, thrush or inflammation of the gums. Problems with appetite most often arise at the moment when the baby is teething, and it simply hurts for him to grasp the nipple or pacifier.
When a child's ear becomes inflamed, the sucking process becomes very painful, as a result of which the baby may also refuse to eat. In such cases, it is necessary to seek advice from a specialist and undergo treatment.
Gastrointestinal disease
If a baby refuses to eat, has difficulty latching onto the breast, throws it away, cries loudly and tries to tuck his legs toward his stomach, then this may indicate that he is bothered by intestinal colic. In such a situation, it is important not only to be patient, but also to know what to do.
Note! Pediatricians advise young parents to massage the baby's navel area, give special anti-colic medications, and place a warm diaper on the stomach.
Flu, ARVI
Colds and viral diseases negatively affect the baby's appetite - they are accompanied by cough, sore throat and fever. As a result, the baby has no time to eat at all.
Breast milk and formula
If a one-year-old baby’s refusal to eat porridge can still be taken as a manifestation of food preferences and you can try to replace the new product with some other one, then the reluctance to suck on mother’s breast or formula from a bottle should seriously alert you. A baby can only get nutrients through milk and artificial formula, so if he turns away from you and doesn’t want to eat, urgently find out the reason for this behavior, because you need to do everything to ensure that the baby eats.
Incorrect attachment to the breast
It may be uncomfortable for the baby to latch onto the breast, and air, along with the milk, enters his esophagus, causing pain. If your newborn squirms when he drinks, trying to grab the nipple more comfortably, or spits up a lot after feeding, ask the visiting nurse to look at how you give the baby the breast and show how to do it correctly.
Strong flow of milk or formula
It happens that so much milk has accumulated in the breast that when sucking, a strong stream of liquid literally hits the baby’s mouth, causing him to choke and choke. Of course, the baby may not like this “behavior” of your mammary glands, and the newborn will begin to refuse food. You should pump a little just before feeding, this will noticeably reduce your milk flow. A baby on IV will simply have to purchase a pacifier with a smaller hole.
Changed taste
If the baby attaches to the breast, drinks, and then throws the nipple and cries, the reason for this behavior may be the changed taste of your milk. Consider whether you ate something sour, sweet or salty the day before that could affect its taste.
Short bridle
If a newborn does not master breastfeeding or bottle feeding from the first days, he may have a congenital pathology that could have been “overlooked” in the maternity hospital. A frenulum on the tongue that is too short does not allow some babies to suck properly. This problem can be quickly resolved with surgery.
Intestinal problems
If the baby, after starting to feed, stops breastfeeding or turns away from the bottle, bends over and cries, intestinal problems may be the cause:
- Colic is the most common reason why babies refuse to eat. Almost all infants up to 4 months suffer from them. To prevent your baby from suffering from colic, you need to give him special teas that reduce gas formation, put it on his tummy more often before meals and give him a massage.
- Dysbacteriosis can also lead to painful sensations during feeding, forcing babies to refuse food. Insufficient population of intestinal microflora can be detected using laboratory tests, as well as by visual assessment of the baby’s feces. If your baby's stool is greenish and mixed with mucus, tell your pediatrician about this; your doctor will recommend which probiotics you should give your baby.
Headache
Toddlers can also suffer from migraines, and the pain will force them to refuse to eat. The child may react to the weather and loud noises. To reduce pain, you can place a damp handkerchief on the baby’s head or give Nurofen.
The child is distracted
A child may refuse to eat because what is happening around him distracts him from the sucking process. If the baby stops eating as soon as they enter the room, it is better for you to discuss this issue with your loved ones. It will be good if you can make the feeding process an intimate and private event.
Disease
Sometimes a baby doesn’t eat well or doesn’t want to eat anything because he doesn’t feel well. Painful sensations during eating can make him refuse to eat:
- If your baby releases the nipple or pacifier while sucking, gasping for air, he probably has a stuffy nose. You should clean out his nasal passages using a nasal tube or an aspirator so that your baby can breathe freely.
- When sucking, the pain that occurs due to inflammation of the ears may intensify. To check whether your baby is suffering from otitis media, gently press the tip of your finger on the tragus near the ear. If the auditory organ is inflamed, the baby will cry loudly in response to your action. In this case, you need to immediately contact an ENT specialist or pediatrician, and spoon-feed the baby during the illness so as not to leave him hungry.
- Thrush and canker sores can also cause pain while eating. If your baby suffers from these diseases, you will find white spots on the bright red mucous membrane in his mouth. The child should be treated under the supervision of a pediatrician, and to temporarily reduce pain in the baby’s mouth, wipe the mucous membrane with a solution of baking soda (1 tsp per 200 grams of water).
Teeth
The baby's gums may hurt so much that it will force him to refuse to eat. If the child does not want to eat anything, and during this period he is actively drooling, try lubricating his gums with anesthetic gel.
Or maybe your baby is a “little one”, which is why the child is satisfied with a small portion. If the baby is active, cheerful, cheerful, gaining weight well, but at the same time, as it seems to you, he eats little, there is no reason to worry.
Signs that your baby is not getting enough food
Baby refuses breast milk
A calm child is a sign that he has enough food
Parents are very sensitive to their children and want to be sure that their baby receives enough food for normal well-being, growth and development. You can tell if your baby is full of breast milk by the following signs:
- Newborns gain weight according to the norm (weight gain begins to be tracked from the fourth day of life). The increase should be in the range from 125 to 215 g per week.
- Active - the child should look healthy, be calm, and at the same time show activity and curiosity.
- Regular bowel and bladder emptying occurs.
- No lethargy.
It will take very little time to track the signs listed above. But every parent will be able to make sure that the baby receives the necessary amount of food, develops correctly and feels well.
If the child refuses food
The body of an infant is an independent system that determines the amount of food for normal development. When a baby refuses to eat and shows signs of poor appetite and begins to cry as a result, it is necessary to accurately and immediately determine the cause of this condition and eliminate it.
Why does a baby cry after a bath - making bathing easier
To improve the feeding process, experts recommend adhering to the following recommendations:
- Walk more in the fresh air.
- During periods of feeding difficulties, prohibit the arrival of a large number of guests in order to minimize the risk of emotional stress.
- Keep the baby calm.
- When bathing, you can add a decoction of chamomile and string to the water.
- If the reasons for refusing to eat are a clogged nose, sore throat, earache or colds, seek qualified help and undergo treatment.
- For abdominal pain, massage regularly.
- When teething, use special devices, ointments and medications to reduce pain symptoms.
In addition to all the recommendations listed, a nursing mother must adhere to a certain diet and, when weaning, exclude foods that the baby does not like from the diet.
Note! If you cannot find out the reason for refusing to eat on your own, then you need to seek help from a pediatrician.
So, what are the reasons behind the tragic “child doesn’t eat well”?
As a rule, a child suffering from such diseases is easy to identify: his stomach hurts even from the most innocent food, he often feels nauseous and sick, he has problems with bowel movements, and many food smells cause him disgust or even a gag reflex. Such a child should be urgently taken to be examined by a specialist. Just remember, this is no longer a dumb baby that you could put in your arms and carry wherever you want. This is already a personality, a nature with its own interests and principles, and sometimes a trip to the doctor can cause a scandal. You simply don’t have to tell him about going to the clinic in advance, but simply take him there as if for a routine examination. It would be nice if you send a child who is especially sensitive to his nature for a walk while he talks with the doctor. Of course, it will be important for you to indicate to the doctor the color and consistency of his stool, and this may offend the child. If you do not see symptoms of the disease, and the child does not eat regularly, then it is worth considering several other reasons.
- What are you feeding him?
- Is there a specific diet for a child?
- Is he eating correctly?
- Negative atmosphere in the house!
- How do you feed the child, is it force-feeding?
Even if it seems to you that you have not clearly found yours among these reasons, you should sort them out.
1.He must eat baby foods. Fortunately, it is now difficult to meet parents who are trying to feed a two-year-old child sushi or smoked lamb every day. But nevertheless, consider your menu: as soon as the child has learned to hold food in his hand and bite large enough pieces that then go into his mouth, he can and should eat what the whole family eats. However, he still needs baby cereals, fruit drinks and fruit purees, he still needs to cook semolina or oatmeal. Overly fried, peppered, or baked in mayonnaise dishes are harmful even for adults, and a child may simply not tolerate them. If your child goes to kindergarten or school, find out his menu there, and try to bring his diet at home closer to the “abroad” diet.
2. In addition, every person, with rare exceptions, has dishes and products that he simply cannot stand. Give your child the same right - he may well refuse a certain dish or two, but if this list grows, do not give in to provocations. It happens that aversion to certain foods goes away with age, but sometimes it remains for life. In any case, no matter how much you convince him that this is useful, and “just try it”, you will achieve nothing except increased hostility.
3.The child must have at least a rough daily schedule. Yes, yes, not only the diet, but the routine of the whole day. To prevent a child from starting to refuse breakfast, he must be hungry for breakfast. He hasn’t eaten anything all night (which is important), which means he’s probably hungry, he just needs to wake up this feeling. This is facilitated by morning exercises, water procedures, and cleaning the bed. Active movement + a washed face is the best way to a healthy breakfast! This rule should be applied to other meals as well. Before lunch, a walk in the fresh air, active movements, and long hikes (relatively long ones) will help. Before dinner, you can collect toys, clean the room, watch a cartoon together, meet dad from work, etc.
4. How to feed a child correctly? Food intake conditions must comply with the norm. The child, like all family members, should eat in the kitchen at the table. You can drink a cup of tea or eat a donut near the TV or with a book, but nothing more. The kitchen should be orderly and relatively clean during meals. The air should be fresh (it is unacceptable for the room to smell of tobacco, fumes, paint, etc.), the child should sit on a stable chair at a stable table if he has already outgrown the high chair. It’s very nice if the child has his own cutlery - his own special plate, spoon, fork. It happens that a child flatly refuses to eat from another plate or with someone else’s spoon - don’t worry, this will pass over time. Numerous snacks between meals can also ruin the matter - you don’t need to take him a bag of cookies for a walk, just take an apple and a bottle of water if he really becomes very hungry during a walk, and it’s better that the child eats nothing at all on the street - this more reliable both in terms of nutrition and hygiene.
5. Negative atmosphere in the house. This is not a very common reason, but even a two-year-old baby is capable of going on a kind of hunger strike in protest of what is happening around him. Scandals and shouting between family members, your irritation, work problems brought into the house - all this can cause the child to eat poorly. He doesn't do this on purpose, he's just sensitive and attentive to the family's problems. Let us repeat, this does not happen often; many children cannot limit their diet even subconsciously, and some, on the contrary, eat away stress and problems. Still, think about it: do the decibels rise too often in your home?
6. Force feeding is not an option at all! This is one of the most popular reasons why a child does not eat. Do you want him to eat? Feed him! But pushing food into it is not a solution at all. Of course, it hurts you to see that he is again pushing the full plate away from him, and it is so difficult for you to resist asking him to eat “well, at least a little more.” But you have no idea how stubborn your child can be, and with what persistence (sometimes to the detriment of himself and his stomach) he can refuse food. Even a child with the best and most vigorous appetite can be turned into a “refusenik” if you feed him, in addition to food, kicks and moralizing. If he didn't eat anything at the table, let him go. Even if this little stubborn person goes hungry all day, nothing will be done to him, but he will learn a good lesson: eat while they give it.
7. Numerous horror stories about children who did not eat anything and became so thin that they were carried away by the wind and their mother could no longer find them can not only not help, but also upset the baby so much that he refuses to eat again and even with tears before our eyes. Various bonuses and gifts for a good appetite are also a sure way to the abyss - each time the child’s demands will increase, and in the end you can get to the point that the whole family will have to sing and dance for one spoon of puree. There is no need to promise anything, no need to threaten or punish - just let him go. As a rule, seeing that the mother no longer hangs over her soul and shows no interest in the contents of the plate, the child calms down and returns to a normal diet. The main thing here is not to overdo it in your indifference and not to throw the plate with the look of “I don’t even care where it lands on you.” Be friendly, you can have a light and not too intense conversation with your child, not about food or something exciting, but about extraneous topics: Aunt Masha is moving to a new apartment, grandma called and said hello to everyone, it looks like it will rain tomorrow and etc. If you are not eating at the same time as your child, you can do your own thing in the kitchen or in another room. The atmosphere should not be tense, and this is not a performance - in any home where people love each other, there is no place for tension and irritation.
Errors in child nutrition
If a newborn does not have enough breast milk due to non-compliance with feeding rules, then solving the problem will not be difficult. Mom must carefully analyze the situation, eliminate mistakes and prevent them from occurring in the future.
To do this you need to follow the recommendations:
- feed the baby on demand;
- do not rush the baby; when he is full, he will let go of the breast on his own;
- maintain a correct grip on the breast and a comfortable position when feeding;
- At one feeding, place the baby on only one breast;
- do not use bottles with nipples or pacifiers.
A nursing woman should rest a lot, sleep and eat every time after feeding, ensuring a nutritious diet and plenty of warm fluids.
Proper feeding is the key to the health and well-being of the baby
Most often, in infants, refusal to eat is temporary. With careful attention, finding out the cause and correcting it will not be difficult, despite the fact that decreased appetite can be due to a number of reasons. Some mothers can cope with on their own; in other situations, they cannot do without the qualified help of a doctor.
BonneyR
I think most people have this problem.
Everyone probably decides differently. If a year ago I might have been able to advise something, now I won’t. I’ll just tell you how it was with us. At some point, the child also stopped eating. I kind of “trained” - also no livers, no snacks. If you don't eat, it means you're not hungry, go play. We're waiting for lunch. Lunch. Don't eat - well, that means you're not hungry, so what? By dinner the kid had already eaten everything. But this happiness did not last long. Then he actually stopped eating altogether, as you write. He still does - he’s 3.7 now - it seems to me that he can spend the whole day eating morning porridge. But about half a year ago he began to complain that his stomach hurt. Well, I think they got gastritis! Super! They checked it, but everything seemed to be fine. Then suspicions crept in that he was complaining about his stomach specifically so that he would not be forced to eat. But nevertheless, the thought of possible gastritis bothered me. And I decided - well, what the heck, these principles and “training”. Well, let him have a snack, but at least he will have something in his stomach. He eats yoghurts - well, thank God! I’ll give yoghurts. If he doesn’t want fruit, he’ll want fruit puree from a jar, or whatever! As long as something is digested there. No, I don’t throw pickles and don’t offer a change of 5 dishes to choose from. On the contrary, I began to worry less about food for children, because it’s a thankless task%-))) you try, you get rid of yourself, you leave them the best and they turn their nose up. Or they’ll smear it all over the table and floor. So, I suggest what to eat - our food, the usual one. If they want, they eat. No, at least it won’t be offensive. Yes, we’ll eat it ourselves. Over time, more dishes began to appear that the child was ready to eat. It’s also not a lot, but I still know that he eats chicken with rice and pasta. If he’s in the mood at least Gradually, gradually, he’s ready to consider more and more dishes%-) It’s not exactly “normal food,” of course, but you can feed him something. I started adding mayonnaise - he eats with it more readily. He likes boiled eggs with mayonnaise, for example. Well, etc., you won’t remember everything. Yes, mayonnaise is not healthy. But still better than an empty stomach.
I also “show him stories about food.” Once I cooked shrimp. WILL YOU? No! I opened photos of “shrimps” in Yandex and showed him how they swim in the sea and all that. True, they look the same - I thought that he would completely refuse, but no, he became interested. Now he eats shrimp too. I showed a video of a bear catching fish with its paw (well, I also found it on Yandex) - the child ate the fish% -))) Well, so on and so forth. I also think that having fun while eating, cartoons, etc. is not all that great. But I think it’s not superfluous to get interested in food, and not distract from it. In the summer, we picked mushrooms at the dacha. Now a child can eat mushroom soup - interesting%-) In short, if you use your imagination, you can get interested in food.
On the other hand, the child began to go to the garden and yes, it helped :-))))))) They eat there - discipline and - lo and behold!!!! — started gaining weight! otherwise he seems to have been the same weight for a year or maybe more! But he went to the garden - at least he gained some %-)))) We still have problems with feeding at home. Because I don’t always have SO much imagination and strength to persuade and advertise food%-) So at 3.7, we can still eat nothing all day. But if it’s the weekend, I’m already calm. I think he’ll go to the garden on Monday - he’ll fatten him up%-))))
in general - good luck, patience, imagination. With children, your imagination is the main way to peacefully achieve what you want
and also: after all, children have a good metabolism, and therefore, even if the child eats mainly pies, it will not cause him the same harm as us, the old ladies. So if he eats pies with cabbage or something like that, then let him and eats. I think - I'm sure! - that there will be an appetite. Well, have you seen a lot of men, young guys - on a diet? :-))) And I’m sure - EVEN IF - you now distract your child with cartoons - this will not lead to the fact that at 15 you will force him to eat cartoons. Teenagers are generally voracious - that's what everyone says. They will sweep away everything they find in the house. In the meantime, the last conclusion I came to is that the main thing is not to ruin your stomach. As for whether it will be livers or soup, it doesn’t matter anymore.
