The child has a poor appetite: the consequences of forced feeding

In general, a child may refuse to eatmany reasons, from the unappetizing appearance of dishes and ending with the desire to attract attention. All these reasons we considered in the article "If the child is naughty for dinner" and will not return to them in this article. Let's talk about deeper psychological causes that cause a lack of appetite in children.

One of the most common causes of poor appetite is forcible feeding. The situation resembles a vicious circle: the child has a bad appetite because the mother feeds him violently. And my mother resorts to forced feeding, because the child has a bad appetite.

Usually in such cases, the child initiallyrefused food for some other reason: he did not like him, or he did not want to eat at a certain time, or ... but a million of them, these reasons! Mom fed him violently once, the other, and the child had a clear association: food - unpleasant emotions. A stereotype of relations is formed in which a type of food starts to evoke a protective reaction in the child: stubbornness and refusal to eat.

There is a so-called neurotic reaction to food. It can be formed and manifested a littlein different ways depending on the type of temperament and the nature of the child. So, if your child is complaisant and gentle, as a result of forced feeding can form latent anxiety. Such a child will be masked by vagaries at the table.

Often, problems with appetite are observed in sluggish phlegmatic children. Usually such a child is slowly - not because,that it is tasteless, just his temperament is like that. Mom starts to get annoyed, tries to speed up the process, shoving a child into his mouth with a spoonful of food, when he has not yet had time to swallow the previous portion. At some point the child simply begins to refuse to eat to avoid forcible feeding.

If the child is very sensitive andimpressionable, he firmly connects negative emotions (fear, resentment, etc.) with the surrounding situation. If the child was forcibly fed, it can "turn around" (sometimes not immediately, but in the future) subconscious fear. Mom has already managed to forget that she once shoved a spoonful of porridge into her mouth, and is genuinely surprised that the child has a poor appetite. Such subconscious fear sometimes can not even defeat the feeling of hunger.

Sometimes problems with appetite can be causedthe fact that the child is forced to choke on tasteless food in the kindergarten. In this case, at home the child eats normally, but at the same time the teacher or nurse complains to the parents that in the kindergarten the child refuses to eat. It happens the other way round: the child does not eat at home, but at the same time he eats well in the kindergarten or at a party. All these are signs of a neurotic reaction to food.

What to do if the child has a bad appetite? First stop making him eat. From the fact that the child does not eat onceok, nothing terrible will happen to him. Hungry - he himself will ask. But you will cease to be for him "a giant with a spoon" (in the words of V. Levy), who forcibly pushes food into him.

It is best to deal with neurotic reactions to eating in a game form. For example, let the child draw a dinner in the familysome little animals (for example, hedgehogs), and then you will come up with a story about hedgehogs that are poorly eaten. The story should show the child that you can enjoy the meal, that it is not necessary to be capricious at the table, that a full meal is very important. At the same time, it must be positive, not moralistic, and necessarily - with a good end.

Swap roles with your child: now you are capricious, and he is trying youto feed. Just do not need wording "on the forehead," do not tell the child: "Now I will be capricious, like you." The game should be fun, funny and interesting for the child. It is necessary to lose it several times.

You can also try to break the formed stereotype of a meal. Invite the child to move to another location fortable, saying that this place is magical: the one who sits on it, always eats well. If the child usually eats in the kitchen - cover it in the living room or in his room (just not in front of the computer or TV).

Often the fact that a child has a bad appetite is the fault of his parents. But everything can be corrected if you show patience and imagination.