The amount of food that a child should eat depends on what he eats. Do not worry if you think that the child eats enough for one meal. He will make up the next meal or snack. If a child is full of energy and growing, so he's all right. If you think that he is slowly growing due to the fact that eating too little, talk to your doctor.

What if the baby fussy eating habits

Many kids finicky eating habits. This is normal behavior for the child at an early age. Perhaps the child eats any one type of food over and over again, and then lose interest and do not want to eat it all. Encourage your child to different kinds of nutritious food, give him the opportunity to choose. Give him what he likes, along with new products. But give him an opportunity to be interested in a new product, do not keep trying. You may have to offer the same thing a few times before he decides to get acquainted with the new food.

Parents need to be prepared to be flexible and perhaps to cook more dishes. For example, if you cook the soup, and the child from it eats only potatoes and carrots, you should prepare for the baby alone even some vegetables.

Write down everything that the child eats, and check if he gets so all the necessary nutrients.

Do not forget that a child is taking with you an example. If a child sees adults eat a varied and healthy food, he probably wants to try something out of it.

How do I know if there is enough eating my baby

Offer your child a tasty and attractive looking food, always in the right amounts. Portion size may be defined as - offer one tablespoon of each food for each year of the child. If the child is still hungry, offer another. Do not force your baby to eat up everything that is on your plate.

Do not bargain with the child for food (for example, do not offer dessert as a reward). Reward and punishment in general is not a good idea as the food. If a child refuses to eat, his refusal to accept. Even if you are worried or upset, do not show the feelings of the child. Otherwise, if the child does not get enough attention, he will continue to refuse to eat specifically to draw attention to himself.

What about snacking

The child should be three main meals a day and two light. Most kids do not eat for one meal enough to wait for the next. Encourage your child to small and healthy snacks. This may be a piece of low-fat cheese, yogurt, apple slices or strawberries, a piece of lean meat or whole wheat crackers with peanut butter.

But try not to offer your child to snack just before a meal, less than an hour before the main meal. If the kid sits at the table hungry, it will be less choosy.

If the child refused to eat during a meal, offer a nutritious snack. If he did not want, ask the same dish the next meal, most likely he would be agree to eat it.

How to ease meals

Here are some suggestions that can make meals easier and more comfortable:

• Warns. Minutes for ten to fifteen before eating tell your child that soon the time to sit down at the table. Children may well be tired or get excited about the game that do not want to eat. Warning the child in advance, you increase the likelihood that it will calm down a bit before eating.
• Observe mode. Children feel more comfortable when the events in their lives are predictable. Try the whole family sit down at one and the same time, same place. Well, if the family members for lunch or dinner will tell each other something interesting.
• Food - time for family communication. Do not let your child play with toys while eating. It is not necessary to read or watch TV while eating. Explain to your child how good all gather together around the table and ask him not to go, until all is not going anywhere.
• Make meals pleasant. If the table comfortable atmosphere prevails, the child is likely to enjoy there with them. Do not quarrel at the table.
• Do not expect too much. Do not assume that a young child learns manners immediately. For example, a child of three years will have a fork and knife. There is a spoon for most children a lot easier.

This is a problem of behavior or appetite

In my practice I have seen many children who would not have, but one child was heavier than all. He always ate like a bird, but this time refused to eat at all. It took about three days to as long as he has something to eat. It seemed that he was on hunger strike. Attempts to feed him forcibly leads to vomiting. My parents were on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but on the fourth day the boy still decided to eat.

What is the reason that children do not eat

Eating disorders - complex problems. It may just be a behavioral problem or may have a complex biopsychosocial causes. Reluctance there may be a symptom of neurobiological disorders of the brain when a person has broken the balance of certain substances in the brain that control hunger, appetite and digestion. Behavioral disagreement arises when the child forcibly fed or overfed.

Can you deal with this problem

Yes, but first we need to understand whether the related eating disorder with the situation of the child in the family. Another important factor is the individual characteristics of the child, they must be evaluated in order to find a suitable solution. For example, I had to deal with a child of two years old, who stubbornly refused to eat. It was found that the biological reason for this is not. It turned out that the mother fed the child breakfast at the wrong time, 7.30 am, because 8 she had to go to work. This led to the fact that the child refuses to eat. Merely changing mealtime resolve the problem.

The other kid had developed an aversion to food, after he was severely punished for what he ate too slowly. Such situations can lead to a subconscious aversion to food.

Homeopathic medicines are useful for the treatment of eating disorders. Antimonium Crudum, Lycopodium, Nux Vomica - some of the tools that can help. Antimonium crudum very useful for infants who regurgitate milk after breastfeeding Breast-feeding: feed - and no nails! . This medication is suitable for children who are constantly capricious, contrary to adults and angry. Lycopodium acts in a way that even if the child is eating enough, it's enough. Nux vomica - appetite stimulant, which are often misused. It should be used only as directed by a homeopath.

Eating disorders can be associated with chronic or acute illness, such as asthma or constant colds, as they can cause improper treatment. In this case the children needs a holistic approach to the treatment to deal with the major cause of problems.

If your child has a weight problem, it is advisable to contact a pediatrician and professional consultant on breastfeeding. First we need to determine whether the child's weight is lowered. To do so, learn how to calculated normal growth in children breastfed.

A short list of aspects that should be considered when a child falls behind in physical development, will help you deal with the problem.

• Wrong breastfeeding Breast-feeding: feed - and no nails!   - This is the most common cause of slow weight gain. Is there enough calories child receives?
• Good is functioning bowel and bladder child? It is a measure of how much milk the baby consumes.
• What is the child's feeding schedule? Is it enough to feed him often? Sometimes a feeding schedule is disrupted due to jaundice in the newborn, his drowsiness, irritability Irritability - you try to control my temper   use or pacifier.
• It allows you to choose the child's mother during breast feeding or the breast itself changes at set intervals?
• Can a child to hold the breast correctly and sucks milk?
• Is there enough in the mother's milk? (Remember that stsezhivaemost milk - not an indicator of quantity.)

It is not necessary to express her milk and feed the baby from a bottle, or give him milk mixture Dairy mixture - selection of useful power To be sure that the child consumes enough calories. There is a special scale to measure the weight before and after feeding, to find out whether the baby gets enough milk. There is also a special procedure performed to calculate weight - make sure that the person conducting the weigh-in, knows the procedure.

Find out if the child has a disease that can affect its weight:

• Children who are ill (even suffer from lung ailments) are often slow to gain weight or lose it.
• For simple ailments that can affect weight include ear infection, stomatitis, belching Belching: why it happens and that means , Anemia, allergies, and urinary tract infection.

What can be done to the baby began to gain weight

There are a few simple and proven things that help gain weight:

• Stop giving your child solid food or reduce its consumption, especially if the child is less than six months. Many solid foods contain less calories and nutrients than breast milk. In addition, solid foods need to be replaced (not updated) more nutritious and nourishing breast milk.
• Sleep with your child (this increases the amount of prolactin and the frequency of feedings).
• Learn to make your child a massage - proved that massage aids digestion and promotes weight gain.
• During the day, wearing a baby in a bag-carrying / sling, try as much as possible bodily contact with the baby. As it turned out, all this helps to gain weight.
• Feed child often - at least every two hours during the day and at least once during the night. Frequent feedings increase the amount of milk consumed.
• Make sure your child has time to completely finish feeding one breast before offering him another: wait for signals that the child ate when he breaks away from his chest, looks pretty and sleepy, stop actively suck / swallow milk - as if sucking a pacifier, etc. . Always offer him the second breast, but if he refuses, do not worry, everything is all right. Much more important is to let the child completely finish one breast-feeding than to feed both. It is necessary for the child to get enough calories and more nutritious "late" milk, which helps to increase the period between feedings.
• During feeding it is necessary to massage and compress the breast.
• Before serving for two minutes to express "the first" milk. It is necessary that the child has received more nutritional and caloric "late" milk.
• If the child was prescribed extra food, preferably to give him breast milk rather than formula milk (rare exceptions). The average content of fat / calories in human milk than in a dairy mix. After feeding, the milk can be pumped out for 5-10 minutes (do not for that interrupt or reduce feeding) and if necessary to offer child vysokozhirnoe "later" milk. It is also a way out for those mothers who are expressing milk, being away from the baby.