Tips on how to deal with a child who does not want to eat

We all know how important it is for children to eat properly , sleep and rest well, clean up properly…; in short, that they are regulated in all basic and essential aspects for their development. But there are individual differences that mark, right from the beginning, different trajectories in these and other aspects.

“I DO NOT WANT TO EAT!” How should we proceed?

Every time it was time for breakfast, lunch, snack or dinner, Luis’s face changed, he closed his eyes a little, pressed his lips together and wrinkled his forehead, nose and forehead. mouth. It seemed as if food was his worst enemy .

The rest of the family was already tired of having to share meals with Luis in these conditions, because for the parents, this moment is very special, since they discuss with their children the things that have happened to them during the day while they savor the foods..

The vast majority of cases of inappetence correspond precisely to children who, even though they may be located in the lower part of the follow-up curve, do not have any organic problem. However, the initial concern and sustained over time makes us face a significant problem that wears down parents a lot.

What happens to them?

In general, there has been a tendency to think that chubby children and good eaters are healthier and, to a certain extent, a high level of defenses is related to a good diet, but, on many occasions, when it has been the other way around and Children are unappetizing, parents have been overly concerned, even when there has been no problem. Frequently, a pressure has been created in the inappetent child to eat , which usually puts the whole family in check.

Sometimes the situation becomes extreme. The persecutions begin so that the child eats at all costs, to the point of pretending that he does it at any time and in any place. Sometimes children come to eat at the same time they are doing other things, even while playing ball with friends. In fact, the scene of a mother reaching out to give her child a snack in the park, almost as if it were oxygen to breathe, is quite familiar.

But it is convenient that we think that, with this behavior, we are creating a habit, a habit that will tend to be repeated and that will take us away from our goal, which is for the child to focus on eating at the right time. On the other hand, hunger will arise spontaneously and, almost certainly, will be able to eat on demand, which will close in a vicious circle.

Those eternal meals

With these children it is common for meals to take a long time. This fact is counterproductive, because it breaks the dynamics of the family and, in the long run, it becomes a problem that, as the child grows, becomes more difficult to solve. Naively, we tend to think that the little one will end up eating, but, normally, what we get is that we end up giving up the parents, who already desperately choose to take something off the plate.

Leave a Reply