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 asking him 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, he gives everything he has eaten back.
Causes of lack of appetite
Firstly, it is worth paying attention to the child’s lifestyle; perhaps a 7-month-old child does not eat well, because his daily activities involve little active play, he sleeps poorly and little, spends insufficient time in the fresh air and the room is rarely ventilated. Parents often don't connect these concepts together, but the baby may not have an appetite if he is constantly seated in front of the TV or simply thrust into the hands of his favorite teddy bear.
Secondly, a common mistake parents make is trying to feed their baby those foods that are recommended in the daily diet of a seven-month-old baby, but he doesn’t like them at all. If a child does not like cottage cheese, in any form, there is no need to force it into his mouth! This only develops a child’s dislike for this dish, and even after time passes, he will not eat it. If a 7-month-old child does not eat a certain category of food necessary for his full development, you can try replacing it with an analogue. For example, instead of cottage cheese - kefir or yogurt, in extreme cases, milk is enough.
Should you force feed a child?
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 must have a diet that is appropriate for 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 pattern: a normal desire to eat
in a person it occurs only when the stomach
completely
empty of the next portion of food (in children, as a rule, this happens 3-4 hours after feeding), but in a child with decreased appetite, as you remember, the secretion of digestive juices is reduced, and the usual a portion of food simply does not have time to be properly digested and “leave” the stomach; if in this case you still force the child to eat some amount of food, he may vomit as a protective reflex against overfeeding, and if this situation is repeated frequently it is possible to develop habitual vomiting 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 into the causes of its occurrence, which can lead to an overload of the child’s body with medications, and further - to drug allergies or inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines).
How can you help your child break this vicious circle and teach him to receive not only benefits from food, but also pleasure?
Not coercion, but distraction
There is a category of parents who, the next time they refuse to eat, begin to scream and even spank their children. It is completely unpedagogical and, most importantly, in this way a persistent dislike for eating develops. Sitting a child in front of the TV is also not an option; the digestive processes do not work correctly, and the stomach does not digest the food received well.
The most ideal option is to distract the baby’s attention - funny jokes, faces, “flying airplanes” and the like, which will cause him to involuntarily open his mouth. By the way, you need to feed in the same place, at regular intervals, observing a certain ritual, for example, tying up a bib, placing a spoon, plate, or bottle of water.
The child, a girl (8 months), has been eating very poorly for 4 months.
The child is now almost 8 months old, on IV from the second week of life, formula - Nutrilon Premium. Until 4 months she ate normally, sometimes she didn’t eat a little at a feeding, but she ate normally with greed. From the age of 4 months she began to refuse formula; during feeding she began to spin around, get distracted by everything, and eventually became capricious and torn out. However, she ate well at night. They started feeding him before going to sleep. As a result, she ate normally for 4 feedings, and one evening feeding was bad. We made a gap between feedings of 4 hours, and tried to introduce complementary foods on the advice of the pediatrician. However, nothing came of it with complementary feeding; everything that was stuffed into the mouth was pushed back out. I only drank juice. I was covered in hives, plus DPT was on the horizon, complementary feeding was canceled. DPT also caused long-term and severe urticaria, complementary foods were introduced again at 5.5 months, but she ate a maximum of 30 grams of it, and so - 3-4 spoons and that’s it. With the mixture, the situation then completely worsened, while eating (from a bottle) she constantly rubbed her face, ears, pulled her hair, after a while she burst into screaming, or began to indulge. As a result, I ate less and less. By 6 months, she stopped eating while sleepy. She ate only as a comfort food if for some reason she cried for a long time. At night I ate well (up to 260 ml). They fed her during the day with songs and dances, sometimes she drank something if she was swaddled or her hands were occupied with something. At 6.5, 2 lower incisors came out, after a week or two there was enlightenment, I began to eat complementary foods better, ate 1-2 jars (100-200 grams), ate zucchini with milk, pumpkin with rice and milk, and rabbit meat. He flatly refuses porridge and fruit purees too. Drinks juices if diluted 50/50 with water. At 7 months, she began to categorically refuse complementary feeding; when she tried to feed her, she would break out and throw a tantrum. Eating the mixture also became worse. Ate per day: at 3 months on average 850, at 4 months - 800, 5 months - 900 ml (due to feeding in a sleepy state), 6 months - 750, 7 months - 750. Blood and urine tests are normal (with words of the pediatrician), hemoglobin - 116, stool was tested for dysbacteriosis. Dysbacteriosis 1st degree. Klebsiella - 10 in 8th. There are no worms. We took a course of Bifidumbacterin + Duphalac and prescribed Potassium Orotate for appetite. There's no point. At the moment, when trying to feed him formula from a bottle, he eats 50 ml at a time, the rest is stuffed in as best he can. He compresses his lips, turns his head, pushes everything away from himself. If he eats, he is constantly in a restless state, twitching his legs, scratching his stomach, rubbing his face. During the day he eats 50-150 per feeding. He eats 150-200 a night. In the morning (5 am) I feed the sleeping one, 200-230. If he wakes up, he won’t eat anymore. Last week we did the 3rd DTP, the temperature was 38.5 for 2 days, and loose stools up to 3-4 times a day (usually 1 time) are still present. The night before yesterday the temperature rose sharply to 38.5. Shot down. Didn't get up again.
The child is cheerful, very active, babbles, is not in a calm state for a second, crawls with all his might, stands up until he takes steps. It sits, but not for long. Weight now 8 kg. She was born 3,500, at 6 months she weighed 7,300.
Could these eating behaviors be associated with prolonged and painful teething? What should I do? The situation is not critical yet, but I wouldn’t like to let it get to that point. He's eating worse and worse. Absolutely no interest in food.
An 8 month old baby doesn’t eat solid food well!
Many parents, when starting to introduce complementary foods into their baby's diet, are faced with the fact that he does not eat it. Today on ChuDetstvo.ru we’ll talk about this.
Why does an 8 month old baby eat solid foods poorly?
Experts have identified several reasons why a child refuses to eat new food: 1. The child is not ready for complementary feeding. Pediatricians advise starting to introduce complementary foods at the age of about six months, but children at this age are often not ready to be introduced to new foods. 2. The baby was scared when he was forced to eat his first complementary foods. If the child was force-fed for the very first time, in the future he will refuse complementary feeding. 3. The baby found the first complementary food tasteless. The food may seem tasteless to the baby, or, conversely, bitter or sour. 4. Inflammatory diseases in the baby’s mouth. Stomatitis or thrush causes painful, unpleasant sensations in the mouth. Often because of this, the child refuses to eat complementary foods if the spoon touches the inflamed areas of the oral cavity 5. The child will not eat complementary foods if he is teething. During this period, a breastfed baby asks for the breast more often than usual. 6. A child does not eat complementary foods if constipated, anemic or ill.
What to do if an 8-month-old child does not eat complementary foods well?
However, there is no need to be upset if your child does not eat new food. Mom should find out what the reason for this reluctance is and try to eliminate it. And only after this can you start introducing complementary foods again, adhering to some rules.
Firstly, you should not force feed your baby. If he refuses to eat solid foods, delay the start of solid foods for a couple of weeks. Secondly, you need to feed your baby according to a schedule. Often, a child does not eat complementary foods for the simple reason that he is not yet hungry. If you feed your baby at a strictly defined time, by this important moment he will have already produced the required amount of gastric juice. Third, don't feed your baby food that he or she definitely doesn't like. In the future, this may cause the child to refuse complementary feeding. Fourthly, let the mother demonstrate to the baby by example that eating is a very pleasant process. The baby should see for himself that eating from a spoon is pleasant. Fifthly, under no circumstances should you force your baby to eat. This will only cause him negative emotions. Even a hungry child can subconsciously refuse to eat.
Don't worry too much if your baby refuses to eat complementary foods.
If you can figure out the reason for the refusal, then it will be much easier to establish adequate feeding of the baby. Don't worry too much if your baby refuses to eat complementary foods. If you can figure out the reason for the refusal, then it will be much easier to establish adequate feeding of the baby. Did you like the article? Tell your friends about it.
My child (8 months) is not eating well, what should I do?
Your child has been eating poorly for 8 months, and you just don’t know what to do? What to do if a child does not eat at all for 8 months?
Each baby, even at 8 months, is already an individual, he has his own preferences and habits. The same goes for nutrition. One baby eats up everything his mother offers him by both cheeks, while the other refuses almost everything. But what can we do? You need to feed the child. What to do if an eight-month-old baby is not eating well? We'll tell you in this article.
It is known that eating habits are a moment that is influenced by many factors, from heredity to the mother’s diet during pregnancy (such a hypothesis also exists and is even confirmed). But what to do if the baby doesn’t eat well or refuses to eat at all? After all, this problem is very important and relevant for parents, since every mother (and dad too) wants her child to be ruddy, plump, cheerful and well-fed.
>So, if a child is not eating well for 8 months, then you need to look for the reasons for this phenomenon and ways to solve it, approaches to the child. For example, the reason may be that the baby simply does not like the taste of the food you offer him. There is also a high probability that, having already tried several dishes at this age, the child has identified his favorites. The child realized that not all food is bland, he wants something new. So you will have to work hard to please your little gourmet. Use different combinations of products, try steaming instead of boiling vegetables for puree. But salt and seasonings should be abandoned to improve the taste.
Remember that the type of dish is also important. So, attract your child's attention to food with the help of various decorations. Draw faces, suns and so on. Perhaps the baby will like it and will happily start eating it.
Pay attention to the process of eating and the environment. Create a favorable atmosphere, buy a beautiful plate, spoon, tie a bright apron. Perhaps the child will be interested.
Make sure that your baby does not snack on fruits or juices between meals. Excessive drinking (especially sweets) also works against you in this case.
So if a child does not eat for 8 months, then try to find out the reason and try to make the appetite come. But if nothing helps, then remember that poor appetite can also be the cause of illness, so in this situation you need to consult a doctor.
