How to help children eat well and gain weight

This is an automatically translated article.

The article is professionally consulted by Master, Doctor Phan Ngoc Hai - Pediatrician - Neonatologist - Vinmec Danang International General Hospital
In order to help children eat well and gain weight, absorb nutrients well and gain weight evenly, parents need to increase their baby's appetite with foods rich in vitamins and minerals, diversify dishes and divide them into different foods. many meals.

1. Help children eat more deliciously by adding nutrients

The lack of appetite leads to anorexia and malabsorption in children. The reason is that the child's body is lacking certain nutrients including: Zinc, lysine, B vitamins,...
Therefore, to help children eat well and gain weight, parents need to improve. children's appetite and stimulate better absorption of nutrients by choosing food groups rich in these nutrients such as:
Zinc-fortified foods such as seafood, beef, dark green leafy vegetables , nuts, ... Food group rich in vitamins of group B such as: Legumes, chicken, brown rice, banana,... Group of foods rich in lysine such as: Fish, meat, egg yolk, fresh milk , beans, ... Accordingly, mothers can make up a daily menu for their baby based on the above foods to supplement the necessary nutrients, thereby helping children eat well and gain weight.

2. Make a variety of dishes for children

One of the ways to help children eat well and gain weight is to cook a variety of dishes for them. Sometimes monotonous, poor meals make children lose their appetite, not stimulating appetite in children. This prolongs inadvertently making children no longer interested in meals. Therefore, parents can diversify their baby's food by combining a variety of foods together. However, it is necessary to ensure that the meal provides enough 4 food groups for the baby, including: Starch, fat, protein and vegetables. In addition, the mother can decorate the dish to be more eye-catching, in order to attract the attention of the child and create excitement for the child during the meal. At the same time, make up for the lack of nutrients, especially those that are often not provided by daily meals.

3. Supplementing nutrition into children's diets

To overcome the situation of children with anorexia, parents need to prioritize quality over quantity in their children's meals. Accordingly, the mother needs to cleverly add nutrients to the food to give the child more calories and nutrition without creating the feeling of eating much. Here are some ways to suggest to mom:
For soups, porridge or stir-fried dishes, you can add butter, cheese, cream (used for cooking) to increase the aroma and flavor of the dish. richer and more nutritious. Give your child milk to help gain weight. Whole milk is usually higher in calories and fat than regular milk. When cooking for children, mothers can add more fat to help supplement energy, which is a way to help children eat well and gain healthy weight. Nuts high in fat, calories and minerals are good for children's physical development and help children gain weight evenly, for example: Peanuts, chestnuts, almonds,... You can add more The seeds are added to a child's drink by grinding and sprinkling them. However, for children under 1 year of age, these nuts should be avoided due to the risk of choking, choking or allergic reactions.

​4. Divided into many meals is a way to help children eat well and gain weight

Instead of letting children consume too much food in 3 main meals, mothers can divide their children's meals into 5-6 meals a day. For young children, the digestive system is still immature, so if you have to load a large amount of food at once, it will sometimes make the child feel overwhelmed. Smaller meals and with less food per meal also help children get hungry faster and absorb easier.
Having a specific and fixed timetable for each meal will stabilize the eating rhythm, avoid erratic changes, the secretion of gastric juice and food digestion will be affected. The main meal should also not last more than 30 minutes and 20 minutes with snacks. If after the above time, the child has not finished eating, the meal should be stopped. The reason for this is that after a long time, the food will cool, the food is no longer as delicious and attractive as it was originally. In addition, feed your child on demand and when he is hungry, he will eat quickly and get all the food he needs. Forced eating or eating time is too long can lead to children being uncomfortable, bored with food, gradually losing interest in eating.

5. Add yogurt to your child's diet

Yogurt contains thousands of beneficial intestinal bacteria, which help stimulate children's digestive ability, and at the same time enhance resistance, help children sleep better, eat more appetizing.
Mothers can combine yogurt as a snack or add 1-2 tablespoons of yogurt to smoothies or fruit juices for children, helping to ensure that the calorie content of children's dishes is significantly increased.

6. Increase physical activity

Enhance movement for children by participating in physical activities to help children eat better, increase intestinal contractions and increase digestion and absorption of food.

7. Using complementary foods helps children eat well and gain weight evenly

One solution to help children eat well and gain weight that many mothers care about and give positive feedback is to take necessary micronutrient supplements to improve taste.
When children lose their appetite, the digestive system will reduce secretions and enzymes to digest food, causing a feeling of bloating, gas, indigestion... When children are anorexic for a long time, the body will also lack vitamins. and essential minerals such as zinc, vitamin B1, vitamin PP, lysine... reduce children's appetite. Therefore, the mother can combine for the baby to use more fortified foods to help the baby reduce anorexia faster and more effectively.
When children with anorexia lose weight, the body is deficient and imbalanced in nutrition, parents need to find out the causes and find ways to overcome to help children eat well to gain weight and to meet the nutritional needs for growth. children's development.
Besides, parents also need to 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. The combination of many types of functional foods at the same time or continuously changing many types in a short time can cause the baby's digestive system not 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.