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Wanting children to eat a lot, parents carefreely force their children to eat without knowing that this can cause psychological effects that make children afraid to eat, leading to psychological anorexia. Among the causes of anorexia, poor appetite in the long run in children, being forced to eat is one of the top reasons.
Video content is professionally consulted by Doctor Pediatric Center - Vinmec Times City International Hospital
1. The harmful effects of forcing children to eat
Some typical harms can be mentioned from forcing children to eat such as:
First: Forcing children to eat has a bad effect on the psychology of children Second: Children may have special dental problems Third: Children may have violent problems
4: Mistake after mistake Signs of anorexia :
● Child doesn't finish 1⁄2 servings of food for age
● Meals usually last more than 30 minutes .
● Children hold food in their mouths for a long time, refusing to swallow.
● Children refuse to eat, run away, cry when they see food.
● There are reactions of nausea, vomiting, regurgitation when seeing food
When children do not eat, anorexia often has causes such as:
● Due to family factors
● Because children have diseases, the body is tired fatigue, anorexia
Physiological: When children are in the teething, crawling, walking stage.. children often tend to neglect eating to have fun and "explore the world"
● Anorexia due to lack of appetite Psychological (when being forced to eat, scolded, beaten...)
Anorexia due to lack of nutrition: Essential micronutrients stimulate appetite, stimulate taste and increase good absorption such as zinc, lysine, vitamins group B ... essential for children. Without them, children are more likely to have anorexia
Anorexia due to inappropriate food: Poor food, monotonous processing, not suitable for the child's age...
Anorexia due to causes Other things such as eating for too long (more than 30 minutes/meal), meals too close together, giving solid foods too early (before 6 months, ...) can make children anorexic
Caring for an anorexic baby ask great perseverance. Asking children to change themselves is impossible. So, when faced with this problem, parents should change themselves and set appropriate expectations.
2. Improve children's anorexia
You should first ask yourself, “What are my parenting goals?” If you want your child to grow up to be a happy, independent child who enjoys eating well (even if he eats little), you probably won't force him to eat and accept the amount of food he can eat every day. day.
Besides changing expectations and accepting the child's eating threshold on their own, parents can persist in taking other measures to improve their child's anorexia. Here are some suggestions:
● You can control your child's meal time, their menu, practice "table discipline", and how much to eat is the child's right.
● Changing the menu, the way it is prepared, and the way it is decorated to help children feel "strange" and more interested in the meal. In order to stimulate children to eat well, to make their taste buds more sensitive and well absorbed by the body, important micronutrients such as zinc, B vitamins, etc. can be added through food or substitutes such as nuggets. , pills,...
● Create healthy eating habits for children: Do not give children snacks, do not eat while playing, do not let children go out to eat.
● Children should be exercised and played to make them healthier, expend energy, have a feeling of hunger and appetite.
Besides, parents can supplement their children with essential micro-minerals such as zinc, lysine, chromium, selenium, vitamin B1, ... to fully meet the nutritional needs of children. The addition of these essential vitamins also supports digestion, enhances nutrient absorption, improves anorexia, and helps children eat well. Parents can simultaneously apply dietary supplements and functional foods derived from nature for easy absorption. The most important thing is that improving your baby's symptoms often takes a long time. Combining many types of functional foods at the same time or changing many types in a short time can make the baby's digestive system unable to adapt and completely not good. Therefore, parents must be really patient with their children and regularly visit the website vimec.com to update useful baby care information.
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