So many mothers in our part of the world especially those that are not literate have devised some crude and fearful ways of making sure that their child eats, some have gone to the extent of force feeding their babies i.e. they hold the baby down with their two legs, close the nostrils and pour the food into the mouth. When they blow the air into the mouth of the baby, the baby swallows the food forcefully gasping for air. This crude method has killed so many children, turning the mother who has a good intention of making sure that her baby eats into a murderer.
It is important to note that not all lack of appetite in
children is actually a problem. This is
because certain conditions can make a child not able to eat well. For example a child who eats in between
meals, not having a choice meal, it can be a sign of disorder e.g. soar throat and
a child who by nature does not eat much.
It can only be a problem when the child is loosing weight and is
actually sick. In this situation, you
should seek the help of a Pediatrician.
But before you spend your money or seek this help, you
need to explore some good ways of making your child to eat more and if these
methods did not work, you can go ahead and seek for help:
Give Your
Child Her Preferred Meals: Every individual
have some meals he prefers to eat, this also applies to the children. You should introduce several varieties of
food to your child and take note of those ones he has shown interest on. When the child looses appetite, it is only
those meals he has shown interest on that you should stick to. This will definitely help him to eat more.
Allow Him
To Be Hungry: When a child refuses to eat, you should not
try to make him eat by all means by giving him different types of food at the same time. Giving
your child food when he is not hungry will make him not to eat well, and you
may think he has lost appetite at that point in time. Leave him for about four hours so as to
actually get hungry; you will be surprised that he will be the one looking for
food.
Avoid too
many choices: Instead of asking him what he wants for
launch, ask him to choose between two meals e.g. you can ask him to choose
between rice with stew and yam with egg stew.
Leaving a child with so many choices of food will get him confused and
at the end not being able to eat.
Dish your
child’s food in small quantities: This is very important; mere seeing a large
quantity of food in the plate will make some children loose appetite
immediately. Some will go ahead and
throw up. Dishing a little quantity of food in a plate at a time will attract
him to eat and when he finishes it and request for more, you will give. It is better that way.
Let them
be active: Experience has shown that active children
eats more and grow healthier than children who are kept inside the house without
actively engaging in any physical activities.
No matter how wealthy you may be, allow your children to play with other
children when they are free from school work. If you do not want them to go to
other children’s houses, encourage them to bring those they want to play with
in your house. This will make them burn
their energy and they will eat more food.
Discourage
Them From Distractions: There are some distractions that will not
allow some children to eat well.
Children who play games and watch a lot of cartoons may not want to
leave it for food. It is advisable that
during meal times, you should not allow such children to watch television. They will definitely choose their game and
end up not eating well.
I hope you have enjoyed my contributions and believe that
if you have this kind of problem with your child, these few methods will help a
great deal.