The introduction of complementary foods and the transfer of the child to the common table is often accompanied by the problem of refusing to eat - all sorts of tricks, persuasion, threats are used, but the baby is adamant. Survey results show that almost 60% of 4-5-year-olds and about 50% of nine-year-olds are toddlers. Doctors and psychologists identify several reasons why a child does not eat well, and give recommendations for correcting eating behavior, depending on the source of the problem.

Before dealing with the problem of poor appetite in a child, assess the general state of his health, observe behavior, habits, and activity levels. Another important point - the child stopped eating suddenly, or he was always small. Heredity plays a role, which determines the physique, growth and weight of children.

Real malnutrition takes place if the child does not eat well for 2-3 months or more, while you notice that the child has become sick more often, gets tired faster, and moves less. With insufficient intake of nutrients in the body, body weight may gradually decrease, the baby's mood deteriorates, and learning outcomes decrease.

To dispel fears, exclude the disease, or vice versa, to identify health problems and choose a treatment, consultation with a doctor will help. Visit a pediatrician who will prescribe the necessary tests and refer you to specialized specialists - gastoenterologist, neurologist, endocrinologist.

What if the child is not eating well, but in general is alert, cheerful, healthy, active and satisfied with life?

Causes of poor appetite and how to eliminate them

Psychological factors, age characteristics, changes in the child's living conditions, and incorrect behavior of parents can also provoke a refusal to eat. By understanding why a child is not eating well, you can apply the right approach to solving the problem and quickly correct the situation.

  • A recent infectious or viral disease. During and after illness, children eat little, reluctantly, preferring to drink a lot. This is a natural reaction of the body's defenses, which is focused on fighting infection, cleansing, restoring.

What to do: Offer drinks, baby's favorite foods, nutritious broths, purees, other light foods. When immunity is restored, the desire to eat will return.


Your small child does not eat well - what if you do not understand the reason, but reduced appetite worries you? What are some tricks to instill an interest in food? The reason for refusals can be a violation of the regime, lack of mobility, walks in the fresh air, unlimited snacks. It is necessary to adjust the daily routine, streamline pastime, introduce new rules:

  • Reduce the number of snacks, replace cookies and sweets with dried fruits, nuts, apples, berries;
  • Walk more, engage in mobile, active activities, go to the park, forest, if possible;
  • Prepare to eat with your children - even at 2 years old, a child can be a great helper in the kitchen;
  • Serve the table beautifully;
  • Eat together;
  • Listen to the child, his taste preferences, desires. If the offspring asks to move dinner to after another cartoon, go to meet him;
  • Introduce new foods to your diet
  • Stick to the daily routine;
  • Make sure that the food is nutritious, as natural as possible, rich in vitamins;
  • Consider the living conditions at the moment: appetite decreases in the heat, you don’t really want to eat after an illness, fatigue after an active walk can cause you to refuse dinner in favor of a large amount of water or fruit.

Remember that a healthy child will not leave himself hungry. Try to trust the baby - stop begging, forcing, worrying, just wait until he wants to eat. Adults don't eat if they don't feel like it, why should a child eat when they don't feel hungry?

What Not to Do

In order not to aggravate the situation and not cause new, even more categorical protests, give up the following practices:

  • Force-feeding, threats, blackmail;
  • Swearing, punishment, if the baby eats inaccurately, holds the cutlery incorrectly, broke the plate;
  • Comparison with other children: “Sasha is such a good boy, look how well he eats”;
  • Complaining about the child in his presence, complaining about his poor appetite;
  • Manipulation: "If you don't eat porridge, you won't grow up." Give truthful information - "to gain energy for games, you need to eat";
  • Excessive preoccupation with the child's appetite.

The formation of adequate eating behavior, the ability to hear the needs of your body and respond to them is the key to future health, the absence of problems with the gastrointestinal tract and eating disorders. By forcing a child to eat when he is not hungry, an adult lays the foundation for the development of psychosomatic eating disorders at an older age.

How to feed a baby for the first 12 months of life

Babies under one year old are a special category of babies. If you refuse breast or formula, profuse regurgitation, weight loss, be sure to consult a doctor. If the baby is healthy, and he is not teething, the reluctance to eat complementary foods may be due to improper organization of the feeding process.

The answer to the question "why does the baby eat poorly?" most often one - the parents began to give complementary foods without waiting until the food interest was formed. An adapted formula or breast milk completely covers all the body's needs for trace elements and vitamins for up to a year, so the introduction of complementary foods does not need to be forced. Wait until the baby begins to sit up on his own and show an active interest in the dishes that you eat.

Breastfeeding and complementary foods consultants recommend introducing babies to the common table gradually, using the method of pedagogical complementary foods:

  • Take the baby with you to the table from 3-4 months, sitting on your knees or placing him next to you in a carrier. So the smallest member of the family from a very early age will see how adults eat with pleasure;
  • When the little one starts reaching for your food, send him to the floor with a spoon or a plastic mug - perhaps he is not interested in food, any items that mom uses;
  • If the child rejects dishes, asks from the floor to his arms and insistently demands food, it's time to take the third step - start offering him microdoses of food from your plate. Start with rice grain-sized pieces, giving 3-4 "servings" of each item throughout the meal (no more than 3 types);
  • By the year, the baby eats with adults, sitting in his chair (it is better to move it close to the common table), portions of each dish reach 3-4 teaspoons.

Any mother at least once faced a situation where her seven-year-old child tightly squeezes her lips, turns away and refuses to eat. How to behave in this case? After all, a prolonged decrease in appetite can be not just an act of protest, but also evidence of health problems. Let's discuss what to do when your child is not eating well.

Causes of Poor Appetite in Children

When wondering why a seven-year-old baby does not eat well, think about what exactly you mean by the term “bad”. Perhaps the child refuses what you are trying to offer him, but willingly absorbs something else. Then we can talk about selective appetite, unless, of course, harmful products such as chips, snacks and other fast food are included in the priority list.
There are a lot of reasons for a decrease in children's appetite:

  • monotony - the baby is simply tired of eating the same thing, his body is fed up;
  • lack of a clear eating regimen - it is advisable to follow a daily meal schedule, in which the intervals between meals will be 2-3 hours. A seven-year-old child can sit down at the table 4-6 times a day;
  • uncontrolled snacking - in tandem with the previous paragraph, is one of the common causes of decreased appetite in children. Regularly eating either a candy or a sandwich, the child simply does not have time to get hungry enough by the time of a full meal, and, naturally, refuses to sit down at the table with you;
  • unwillingness to chew or eat on their own - some children, even grown up, are very fond of being spoon-fed, and when they are refused, they immediately demonstrate protest and unwillingness to eat;
  • infectious diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, allergens - if you feel unwell, accompanied by fever, cough, runny nose and other troubles, the child naturally refuses food;
  • problems of the digestive system - diseases of the intestines, stomach, liver and other internal organs negatively affect the child's desire to eat a hearty meal;
  • lack of iron - may be accompanied by a perverted or very selective appetite (with severe anemia). In this case, it is first important to restore the level of iron in the baby's body and create reserves with the help of medications, and then work with appetite;
  • serious diseases (tumors, metabolic disorders, problems with brain function, breathing, heart, etc.);
  • psychological factors - pressure from parents leading to an open clash of interests, banal whims in order to get something better and tastier, unformed value of food, fixed negative memories of the process of eating (for example, adults scolded in early childhood if the baby did not eat to the end ).

It happens that, without understanding the reasons, excited parents try by hook or by crook to feed a fastidious baby: they persuade, play, threaten, scold, force, feed between times (during games, for example), etc. Whatever the reason for the child’s refusal to eat, try to calm down and move on from the question “how to make a 7-year-old baby eat” to thinking about how to help him and get him interested in food.

What to do to make a 7-year-old child eat well?

Before you get worried that your child is not eating enough at 7 years old, compare his nutrition with the average daily intake of proteins (80 g), fats (75-80 g) and carbohydrates (300-350 g). In general, this will be approximately 2500 kcal per day. Divide these numbers by 4-6 meals and try to make a menu based on these data. It may be more convenient to feed the little one in small portions, but more often, than to try to cram the whole portion into him at one time.
Try to get away from the model of strict control over the amount of food eaten - your baby himself knows how much he wants to eat, leave him to be responsible for issues related to himself. Praise the baby, even if there is a lot of food left on the plate (we form positive emotions for the meal process). Use a beautiful and appetizing serving, serve accompanying products to the dishes (canapes, sandwiches, croutons, pies). Many children with great zeal save the heroes depicted at the bottom of the plate from the flood. Give up TV, tablet, games and performances during the meal - it distracts from the process and creates the wrong automatisms for the future. Sit down at the table with the whole family and demonstrate the rules of good manners - looking at you, the baby will soon begin to eat willingly too.
Try to be patient with your child, treat his temporary whims with understanding, and in this friendly atmosphere, your child’s healthy appetite will not keep you waiting.

Naturally, the reasons decreased appetite in a child may be different depending on his age, gender, season, health status, etc. (the list of reasons can be unlimited). And yet, most often a sharp drop in appetite is observed in children whose age is approaching a year old or has recently exceeded this limit.

In the vast majority of cases, it turns out that Mother Nature herself took care of placing the baby on a restricted diet. The fact is that if the child continued to eat at the same volume (and pace) in the second year of life as in the first year of life (and, accordingly, continued to gain weight and height just as intensively), then he could soon turn into a creature that most resembles Winnie the Pooh from the famous cartoon (or little Mr. Pickwick from the famous Dickens book).

It is generally accepted that in the first year of life a standard child - if such children exist at all - usually triples the body weight available at birth. In the second year of life, children add only about a quarter of the weight available at the age of one. Therefore, a decrease in appetite in children, which is so disturbing to most parents, is just a natural reaction of the child's body, contributing to its further normal physical development.

Appetite can also be influenced by other factors, of which there are a great many. Paradoxical as it may seem, but the ever-increasing interest in the world around us most often interferes with a normal meal. If in the first year of life, eating was, as it were, part of the child’s natural existence, then after crossing the “one-year-old Rubicon”, feeding turns (from the child’s point of view) rather into an annoying break in the “full of secrets and surprises” life of a baby who considers himself independent and independent.

The already mentioned independence can lead to the development of specific taste preferences in the child. In addition, even such a trivial phenomenon as teething may well cause a significant decrease or even complete lack of appetite. The listed reasons do not fully explain the refusal in young children.

What to do if the child does not eat enough?

The formation of the correct food stereotype is not so much a struggle with a child as a cunning pedagogical combination in compliance with some mandatory rules.
  • Always be guided by the child's appetite. Let him help himself heartily when he is hungry, and calmly treat his sluggish "picking" in a plate when he has no appetite. Never force feed him!
  • Avoid food that pampers the child. Even eating a relatively small amount of "empty" foods (sweets, fried or refined foods) fills a child's stomach, leaving no room for the normal nutritious food he needs.
  • Limit snacking. A child's appetite will certainly improve if you somewhat limit the number of "snacks" during the day, although canceling them completely is wrong and unphysiological. At the same time, it makes sense to make sure that the snacks given to young children are fortified, not too sweet and high-calorie.
  • Don't give too much to drink. Excessive fluid intake occupies a significant part of the useful capacity of the stomach of a small child and creates a false feeling of fullness in him. Although the appetite of the little ones can improve significantly if you offer them a small amount of fruit juice during a meal to drink down.
  • Do not try to over-flavor your food with fats and carbohydrates. Adding a lot of oil or sugar (high in calories) to food does not help normalize the baby's appetite. On the contrary, children with reduced appetite are shown more protein-rich foods, since it is protein that provides the child's development processes to the right extent. The quota of such "protein" foods as cottage cheese or meat can be slightly increased in the diet with a corresponding decrease in the share of other dishes.
  • Make sure your child chews food thoroughly. It is not so important that this somewhat lengthens the process of eating, but the production of gastric juice also increases, which improves appetite. By the way, the culinary features of cooking also largely influence the processes of formation and secretion of gastric juice: food for young children should be more tender and require longer cooking than for older children and adults.
  • Don't forget to walk. Walking in the fresh air contributes to the normalization of appetite and allows for greater physical activity and a corresponding energy expenditure.
  • Keep your child in a good mood. Appetite largely depends on mood. It is unlikely that a crying or naughty baby can be a good eater at the same time. Therefore, try to make the emotions of a growing man be predominantly positive.
  • Be consistent and persistent (but not intrusive). Do not give up. The fact that today a child categorically refuses porridge or mashed meat offered to him does not in any way mean that he will do the same tomorrow. It is necessary to regularly offer him various foods and, most likely, the baby will gradually come to terms with the inevitability of consuming the proposed food. And force-feeding a child can soon lead to the formation of a negative reflex to eating.

Loss of appetite when sick

Some tips for when your child is sick:
  • The child should be given plenty of fluids to drink, especially if the disease is accompanied by vomiting or diarrhea. The liquid should not be too cold or hot. Do not give carbonated drinks and strong-tasting liquids that irritate the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines.
  • Do not give cow's milk or other dairy products if the child has signs of gastroenteritis.
  • Although there is usually no need to follow a strict ("invalid") diet, nevertheless, avoid "heavy" and protein-rich foods when the child has an upset stomach.
  • Offer the baby some of his favorite foods (to cheer him up), but the amount of food should be significantly less than usual. Although, since the child's body is weakened during this period, it is likely that he himself will not want to eat too much.
Unfortunately, reduced appetite does not always reflect the harmless and completely natural features of the body of a growing child. Decrease or loss of appetite is often one of the first signs of his ill health. Nevertheless, one should not dramatize the situation and show excessive concern about this, since usually the disease (usually a trivial cold, called an acute respiratory disease) does not drag on for too long.

Suspecting that the child is unwell, he should be carefully observed for several hours. At the same time, special attention is paid to pallor, changes in behavior (this can be either excessive excitability or excessive apathy), fatigue unusual for a baby. Of course, it would be useful to measure the child's body temperature (preferably repeatedly). If necessary, you should contact your pediatrician in a timely manner.

In some cases, loss of appetite may be due to some specific health problems in the child, among which are states of food intolerance or allergies to certain foods that parents "stuff" the baby. See your pediatrician instead of trying to identify and eliminate the food allergen yourself. As a result of such amateur actions, it is possible to deprive the child of some irreplaceable nutritional components necessary for the full development of the baby.

If the baby managed to "pick up" ...

Sometimes it may turn out that the child "picked up" something edible (repeatedly snacked between main meals), so the appetite at the table may be reduced. Since these "snacks" could be very nutritious (and high-calorie), then in this case you should not worry.

If from time to time the child refuses to eat for no apparent reason, then this should not cause much concern. Your child will almost always eat as much food as he needs. If you insist all the time that the child "eats well" (in your opinion), then the meal threatens to turn into a fierce battle, and most likely you will lose this fight.

You should not mask an unloved food by mixing it with another. Also, do not bargain, promising your favorite food only after the child copes with the food he hates.

Never show your child how important it is to you that he absorb the food offered to him. A child who realizes this circumstance may well begin to manipulate you.

Little Conservatives

Young children are extremely conservative in their eating habits and preferences. For this reason, it is necessary to expand their diet very carefully. In particular, if you are going to introduce a new kind of food to the baby, try to wait until the child is hungry for this purpose. This approach will significantly increase the likelihood that the new food will be favorably received by the child.

New parents should be prepared for the fact that, starting from the second year of life (or from the end of the first), many babies like to actively demonstrate the refusal of some kind of food. For this age, love for only a few dishes is quite typical. A child can eat, for example, exclusively fruits or kefir for several days or weeks, and then suddenly “switch” to meat and cheese. At the same time, parents should not be too strict and demanding, seeking by all means so that the baby consumes the types of food he does not like. None of the foods can be considered absolutely indispensable and therefore almost any of them can be successfully replaced by another. It will be much more productive to focus on trying to diversify the baby's diet as much as possible. This will, to a certain extent, provide most of the nutrients a growing child needs.

The real problem arises only if the child for a long time and systematically completely refuses all kinds of products necessary to ensure the usefulness of his diet - for example, from any vegetables, fruits or grain foods. In this case, it makes sense to change the culinary features of cooking or to show ingenuity (cutting food in the form of unusual geometric shapes, etc.), which is very popular with young children.

Necessary products for the child

Food cannot serve as a way to manipulate the baby. The basic rule that defines the strategy for approaching feeding young children can be formulated as follows: "DO NOT LIKE - DON'T EAT!"
Back in the early 1980s, American pediatrician Clara Davis carried out a famous experiment by allowing a group of one-year-old children to freely choose food from a large assortment of food offered. I must say that at the same time, the parents did not take the slightest part in the process of feeding the babies. The results of this experiment were simply stunning. It turned out that ALL of the children were consuming the so-called "well-balanced diet". By this term, pediatricians understand a diet that includes foods from the four main food groups daily. Usually, children who have reached the age of one are already able to independently build their own diet, providing the physiological intake of all the nutrients necessary for the body. At the same time, it is not so important what time of day or what feeding these products are given.

It is important to regularly monitor such indicators of the physical development of the baby as body weight and height. If you are in difficulty because you do not know how to interpret the physical development of the child, ask the pediatrician to evaluate its parameters (according to special tables).

At some stage of development, many young children are "bad eaters", but in most cases the problem comes from the parents of the baby, expecting the child to follow certain food stereotypes (which he temporarily rejects). With a flexible and natural approach, this problem usually disappears soon.
4 Food Groups Your Child Needs

  1. Meat products (meat, poultry, fish, eggs).
  2. Vegetables and fruits (any kind)
  3. Milk and dairy products (cow's milk, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, kefir, etc.).
  4. Bread and grain products (bread, biscuits, cereals made from various types of cereals or flour, including rice)

Vladimir Studenikin, pediatrician, doctor of medical sciences

A long-awaited event has happened in your family - the birth of a baby. There were no problems with feeding the baby, because he received all the necessary vitamins from his mother's milk. Feeding a one-year-old baby and an older child is more difficult: after all, you already have to add more vegetables and fruits to food, gradually equating the children's diet with an adult. There are difficulties with nutrition: the baby is naughty while eating, eats little or does not eat at all. Parents panic: what to do?

The main causes of poor appetite in a child

Poor appetite in a child aged 1-2 years can be due to a number of reasons. First of all, it is necessary to exclude any disease, due to which the appetite can be reduced or completely absent.

Do not panic if your baby does not eat well, but at the same time looks quite healthy and vigorous. He is usually in good health, but apparently there are reasons that affect his desire.

Try to identify the root cause of your lack of appetite.

There are several reasons that can affect appetite.

  • Transferred disease ().
  • During cooking, the preferences of the baby (taste, food texture, serving size) are not taken into account.
  • Coercion during feeding (forced, persuaded).
  • Snacks between meals.
  • Influence on appetite of the season.
  • Violated daily routine: walking, feeding, sleep.

What to do if the child eats poorly or eats very little?

  • After illness

A child who has just recovered will not show a "wolf" appetite. Usually during this period he is more thirsty, and his appetite, as is generally the case, is very small.

Be attentive and patient: listen to his desires, and very soon the baby will ask for food.

  • Teething

In the period from one to 2 years, teething occurs in children. As a rule, a baby has four upper and lower teeth per year. Primary molars and canines erupt by the age of two, and can also be a cause of anxiety and poor appetite.

  • Don't force if you don't want to

You can not constantly force the child to eat more or eat what he does not like. Otherwise, you run the risk of causing the baby to be disgusted with food and dislike the very process of eating. Portions of food should be moderate, not too large.

  • Avoid snacking between meals

A couple of cookies or sweets eaten before dinner can affect your appetite. A sweet tooth can feel full from a snack, and therefore refuse to eat during lunch.

  • Appetite level depends on the time of year

Undoubtedly, on hot summer days, children's appetite decreases. The young body wants to drink more, and this is normal. In the heat, do not force the child to eat, let him drink natural freshly squeezed juices.

Half an hour before meals, you can give a glass of water, this will help increase salivation and stimulate appetite.

  • Follow the routine of the day

The daily routine of the child should have a certain sequence. Timely going to bed and waking up, daytime and nighttime sleep, walks, games and meals form the habit of doing everything at the right time.

Spend enough time outdoors. The daily routine from one to two years should correspond to the physiology of the development of a child of this age.

For example, if you have lunch at 2:00 every day, then by this time he will really want to eat.

  • Consider your child's taste preferences

Milk porridge, which the neighbor's kid eats with pleasure, may not please your son at all. Many children love vegetables, and some prefer meat. So when a child eats with gusto, take a closer look at what remains untouched on the plate and which food is eaten first. Thus, you can find out his taste preferences.

  • Diversify your diet

To diversify the diet, you can introduce new dishes into it - so that your favorite dish is combined with a new one. To do this, counting on the fact that the baby will eat the main dish and try a new one. In addition, as the child grows, his taste preferences may change and expand.

  • Create a pleasing food appearance

What can not be done if the child refuses to eat?

  • Each mother struggles with a child's poor appetite in her own way. But in no case should you force the baby to eat! This will not only cause disgust for food, but also violate the trusting relationship with mom.
  • Do not threaten or blackmail : "You won't go to play until you eat." It can spoil the child's psyche. During meals, turn off the TV, computer, tablet, as they negatively affect digestion.
  • Do not swear if the baby, for example, broke a cup or spilled a drink during a meal.
  • Don't show your concern and experience if the baby does not eat anything.
  • Don't snack before the main meal.

The main thing is to try to understand why the baby has a poor appetite. Based on the reasons, proceed to carefully thought-out actions.

If the child does not eat well, then sooner or later you still make attempts to change the situation.

It seems that I will start and the situation will immediately change.

'Cause I'm doing everything right. Unfortunately, sometimes the situation does not change as quickly as we would like it to.

Why does the child not respond to mother's changes?

If you are faced with the issue of a child’s bad behavior at the table, or poor appetite, then you know that if the issue is not corrected in time, it tends to develop and become even more neglected.

If in a situation with bad behavior at the table, the issue is resolved quickly enough- it is important to simply establish clear boundaries of behavior, and familiarize the child with them, then in a situation where a child is older than a year - and eats little or poorly, or slowly - you will have to work hard.

But now it’s worth focusing on awakening his interest in eating carbohydrate foods - boil pasta, buy a variety of pastries or bake yourself, boil potatoes. May there always be choices on the table.

  1. Earn a credit of trust.

If the child is tired of the pressure and suddenly you have studied the course and start behaving in a new way - you do not need to wait for the child to exclaim joyfully on the very first day: “Oh! Wow! They stopped force-feeding me! I myself can choose what I want now and how much!”

This credit of trust was, and is, every mother, when a child aged 5-6 months. begins to show interest in food and asks for food, snatches it from his hands.

But if we immediately begin to FEED, put pressure on the child, then literally in 3-4 months the child completely stops believing in us in matters of nutrition and begins to defend himself, stops eating.

How is trust restored?

At first, the child looks sideways at his parents with some apprehension. After all, he was used to being forced. Here, for the first time, he feels the absence of pressure and a feeling of relief appears.

But it's temporary. He was already used to living in tension at the table.

Therefore, for some time he will be watching you - have you really changed? Is there really no need to defend anymore? You will not deceive? Or is it worth relaxing for a second and opening your mouth, how will a spoon with hated semolina immediately appear in it?

After 1-2 weeks, relaxation will become habitual. The child will feel that he is ready to cooperate with his parents and even agree.

And in a couple of days, he will understand that he is completely safe, that the rules have changed forever and now he can NOT defend at the table, but study! Watch what he wants? To try and understand the signals of the body ....

And then you need to be very, very attentive to your actions so as not to destroy the new, trusting feeling that the child has formed!

Ludmila Sharova.