What if the child refuses complementary foods? What are the risks for the body of a baby who does not receive “adult food”? How to behave to mom so that the baby starts eating? Recommendations of pediatricians on determining the correct tactics of action.

Most mothers look forward to when the baby is six months old. After all, at this age, you can introduce complementary foods, which means you can please the baby with new products, carefully prepared dishes. This is the essence of maternal nature, the manifestation of love, the evolutionary desire to feed, which is second in importance to the preservation of the human race after the need to warm.

In the introduction of complementary foods, the mother sees new opportunities for the manifestation of affection and care. Therefore, the refusal on the part of the baby is perceived with great chagrin and even apprehension. At the same time, pediatricians believe that nothing urgent is happening.

Reasons for not eating

From the moment of the beginning of life, the child received delicious and sweet breast milk or tasteless, but such a familiar mixture. And suddenly at some point he is offered a completely new food. Its taste seems unexpected, unusual and does not always attract a child.

At the same time, babies on breastfeeding and artificial nutrition are introduced to new products in different ways.

• Babies are familiar with the tastes of food. Breast milk, which babies consume daily, contains flavor notes of the products used by the mother. Therefore, when using them as introductory nutrition, the risk of failure is much less than non-traditional products for mom's table. In addition, breast milk contains digestive enzymes that help digest food. If, after taking a new product, the crumbs did not have problems with digestion, he will eat such food with great pleasure the next day.
• Artificers know only the taste of the mixture. It is believed that it is easier to accustom an artificial person to complementary foods, since he receives “alien” food all his life. But not everything is clear here. Adapted Blend it has a neutral taste, and, having tried a new product, the baby may simply be “scared” of it. In any case, it will be more intense, specific. It may seem too sour (if we are talking about the fruit ingredient) or sharp ( vegetable puree from cabbage, pumpkin). At the same time, kids pay attention to sweet tastes quickly, so dishes from sweetish vegetables or industrial cereals are usually eaten with pleasure. Thus, a selective love for complementary foods develops: previously unfamiliar with a sweet taste (unlike babies), artificers eat sweet fruit purees and cereals, but refuse meat dishes, fish, and cottage cheese.

However, the type of food that a child receives is only a single aspect that affects his attitude towards complementary foods. Much more important pediatricians consider the following factors.

Physiological readiness for feeding

The recommended period for the introduction of complementary foods at six months is conditional. For each baby, the process of "maturation" of organs and systems occurs individually and with different intensity. In particular, in breastfed babies, the digestive system becomes more stable and mature for the intake of any other food than breast milk just in time for half a year. But for artificial people and babies on a mixed diet, this process takes longer. Therefore, early attempts by the mother to offer new food lead to the fact that the child does not eat complementary foods. His body is simply not yet ready for it!

Such factors should also indicate physiological readiness.

• The kid is sitting freely, holding a spoon. This is important from the point of view that acquaintance with complementary foods should take place with the direct participation of the child. He is not a passive “spectator” of the process, he is an active participant in it, who learns to independently pick up food in a spoon, bring it to his mouth, remove it with sponges and chew.
• The expulsion reflex is already gone. By about six months, the reflex fades in children, prompting the tongue to push out any thick and solid food. This suggests that the baby is physically ready to consume something other than milk or formula. If everything you give makes you vomit or is pushed out of your mouth with your tongue, your baby probably hasn't lost the reflex yet. And food has to wait.
• The digestive system is responding normally. If the use of new foods causes pain in the child’s tummy, diarrhea, increased gas formation, this does not indicate a “normal reaction to unfamiliar food”, but that you offer it to the child early, before the digestive system matures. Of course, the baby cannot associate discomfort in the tummy with any product. But intuitively refuse such "dangerous" food may well.

If a child does not eat complementary foods for 6 months, it means that he is not yet physiologically ready for it. Mom should wait and try again in a couple of weeks. It is important to do this only at the moment when the baby is completely healthy. Poor health with acute respiratory infections, teething in most cases is the reason for refusing to eat.

Psychological factors

Breastfeeding consultants are sure that the child must be emotionally ready for complementary foods. The process of eating food causes a keen interest and a desire to try it yourself - this is what emotional readiness means.

In this case, no problems with the use new food will not occur. Moreover, the child will want to eat it and enjoy it. Moreover, there is no difference in the type of nutrition in this case: it is equally effective to interest in food both a baby and an artificial one.

What are the signs of psychological readiness? There are several.

• The child is interested in food. If he sits on his mother's lap during a family meal, he tries to reach the contents of the plate and send it into his mouth.
• The baby protests when he does not receive the product. It is a product, not a cutlery or, for example, a napkin. There is a big difference in the interest in food, where the goal of the baby is to eat food. And in objective interest, when the baby just wants to turn a spoon in his hands or try his mother's cup on the tooth.
• The child does not rest until he receives the product. It is difficult to distract him from the desired game, in another way. Even after receiving a breast, he again returns to where he started: he demands the food he likes.

Usually, food interest is formed if the child regularly spends time at the common family table from the moment of mastering the sitting skill. When he observes day after day how his family members behave at the table, how they eat different foods, how they like it, how they communicate with each other, the problem of what to do if the child does not eat complementary foods does not arise.

Basic principles

It is always easier to prevent the development of negative phenomena, so let's dwell on the basic principles of proper complementary foods.

• Physiological readiness, food interest. New foods should be introduced only if both of these factors are observed in the baby.
• The baby is healthy. Sometimes it happens that the baby actively ate one or more foods, but suddenly the child stopped eating complementary foods. At the same time, he literally “hung” on his chest, behaves unusually, squints, and often cries. The reason for this may be painful teething, poor health as a result of the disease, after vaccination. After recovery, the usual diet will be restored. It is only necessary to give the child's body a break for this time and not force him to eat.
• No violence! The right food is desirable. If the baby refuses it, it means that he has no food interest or physiological factors have come into play. Forcing him to eat is unacceptable, otherwise the fact of eating will be perceived negatively by him. And the problem of "feeding" will become a way of eating in your family.
• Don't overfeed. A common situation is when a child begins to try some foods and even begins to eat some of them well. And the mother decides to bring him to the "recommended norm", prepares 180 grams of mashed potatoes or porridge every day and encourages the child to eat everything that was cooked by all means. As a result, after a few days, the baby begins to refuse the food he liked earlier at all. And it's not that he doesn't like the taste. And the fact that the previously beloved dish acquired a negative connotation for him: the child was already full and did not want to eat anymore, but at the insistence of his mother, he had to eat everything, as "indicated in the norms."

The existing norms, for convenience, offered by months in tablets, are not at all a guide to action. They give general recommendations what foods and at what age should be offered to the child. And they show more than what norm the child should not eat in order to avoid overfeeding. At the same time, it is provided that breast milk or formula is necessarily preserved in the diet.

When breastfeeding

What to do if the child refuses complementary foods while breastfeeding or, for example, does not eat vegetable food limited only to porridge or fruit puree? Nothing, consultants on GV answer.

According to WHO recommendations, breast milk should remain the main food for a baby up to a year. Its huge benefit remains in the future, up to two years. But now, when the baby has not even reached the age of one, it is milk that serves as its main source of food. And any complementary foods, even meat, even cereals, are exploratory in nature.

At the age of one year, the baby should receive only twenty-five percent of the nutrients from third-party products, and the bulk - seventy-five percent exclusively from breast milk. There is evidence that up to the age of eight months, mother's milk covers absolutely all the nutritional and energy needs of the child. As long as you are breastfeeding on demand, you can be sure that your baby is provided with everything he needs.

Therefore, even if a child of 9 months does not eat complementary foods well, relax, do not be nervous, and act according to the circumstances. Does he like a certain type of porridge? Okay, so eat it. Tasted a piece of meat and spit it out? Offer it in a week, and then again in a week.

The perception of food is formed in the baby not at one moment. Studies by scientists have shown that an addiction to a particular product occurs if a person has tried it a sufficient number of times. Not one or two, but twelve or fifteen. Therefore, in order for acquaintance with meat or, for example, cottage cheese to take place, one should periodically give it for testing.

The correct actions of the mother, a calm and attentive attitude to the needs and desires of the baby will bear fruit. Usually, babies begin to eat the whole range of foods recommended to them, not at six or eight months, but at a year or a little older. When saving breastfeeding this is normal.

With artificial feeding

Of course, the value of breast milk for a child is many times higher than formula. But it is also not worth rushing to transfer the artificial to an adult table. Up to a year, it is the mixture that should serve as a supplier of the necessary substances for its growth and development, while other products are only for informational purposes.

“Do not worry if the baby does not perceive other food,” advises pediatrician Tatyana Semenchenya. - He will learn to enjoy food over time, and only if he sees a worthy example from his parents. Don't push for new products, stick with one."

• Do not try to diversify the menu. It is normal if every day the baby will eat one kind of fruit puree or porridge. Do not give it a lot, let the amount be a few teaspoons.
• Make sure the food is neither hot nor cold. Kids usually don't like this.
• Stick to the routine. Offer porridge in the morning at the same time every day. And for lunch - vegetable puree. This way you will form the habit of eating the right foods.
• Observe your baby's tastes. Usually children eat buckwheat and corn porridge with pleasure. Older kids love oatmeal. Some gobble up zucchini puree, while others eat vegetables in the form of soup. Taste preferences are a reflection environment in which the child lives. He is interested in what his relatives eat, and with distrust of unfamiliar-looking dishes.

If a child does not eat complementary foods for up to a year or its volume is very small in the general diet, one should not panic. Breast milk or formula remains the main food at this age. Other products should bring joy to the child, the desire to try them, which is ensured by the formation of food interest and proper eating habits.

Always take the baby to the table, do not impose food, encourage the initiative to eat meals on their own. Gradually, he will move to the usual diet of your family. But it will happen closer to a year and a half.

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A 9 month old child is not eating well. Maybe he just began to fill up on smaller amounts of more satisfying food?

You can often hear from mothers: my child does not eat well. First you need to make sure that this is so. If the baby is gaining weight well in accordance with his age, then there is no reason to panic - it means that he has enough.

Your nine month old baby does not eat the norm indicated on the box of porridge or eats less zucchini than the neighbor Kolya. But he, on the other hand, eats children's cookies, applesauce, drinks compote. That is, by volume, he eats the same amount of food than a serving of powdered porridge for his age or a vegetable beloved by a neighbor's child. After all, kids also have their own taste preferences.

The baby began to gain less weight. This is absolutely normal. And if a newborn should gain at least 600-800 grams per month, then this figure gradually decreases with age.

Even when determining whether a child of 9 months is not eating well or not, it is important to understand that he used to drink only formula or breast milk, which are digested quickly. And now the child receives more high-calorie and long-digesting food. Therefore, he is more full, gorges on a smaller volume. You can try to increase the intervals between feedings, to ensure the high physical activity of the child.

You analyzed the situation and came to the conclusion that after all your baby does not eat enough. He became restless. See if he's teething or has a sore throat. Or the child does not feel well and gets sick. In this case, show it to the pediatrician. The doctor will determine if the baby is healthy, if he has enough food, if his height and weight are appropriate for his age. Perhaps the doctor will prescribe vitamins to the child to increase appetite.

We all know that nothing increases appetite like a walk on fresh air. Your baby may not be eating well at 9 months because you don't go out with him much. At least 3 hours in summer. In winter, depending on the weather, an hour or two.

The reason for the child's poor appetite may also be the fact that he gorges himself at night. When calculating whether the baby eats enough, be sure to include the amount of liquid drunk per night (milk, juice, yogurt, water).

Another reason for a child's poor appetite is heat. When it's hot, the baby tends to drink, not eat.

Adaptation to a new place, vivid impressions can also negatively affect the child's appetite, but gradually everything returns to normal.

A good appetite in a child is a source of endless joy for parents. There is nothing more pleasant than to see how a child happily eats a cooked lunch, dinner or breakfast. But more often it is the other way around. Mom and grandmother tried to cook, and not just like that, but exactly what the little one loves. And the kid persistently refuses to eat and is naughty.

In some families, every meal turns into a real battle between the "unwanted" and his persistent parents. The child is persuaded, they try to deceive with various maneuvers and tricks, they insist and threaten that he will not get candy if he does not eat the soup. Is it necessary to try so hard and what to do if the child has a poor appetite, says the well-known pediatrician Yevgeny Komarovsky.

Appetite is different

Without food, life is impossible, but appetite does not always come with eating. Natural appetite occurs when food is required by the body to replenish energy reserves in order to survive. And the electoral accompanies modern man much more often. The child wants cookies because he likes them, and does not want porridge because cookies are better.

Selective appetite reflects the real picture of the needs of only baby, at 8-9 months he intuitively feels that he needs calcium, and refuses to eat soup. Not because the soup is tasteless, but because milk is healthier. At the age of 1 year, 2 years, children prefer dairy products for the same reason.

If a one-year-old child fundamentally does not eat meat, this does not mean that at 3-4 years old he will not begin to eat it with pleasure. It's just that for a 12-month-old baby, vegetables and fruits, cottage cheese and milk are more important. And he understands this intuitively.

Closer to 3 years, the problem of selective appetite, according to Komarovsky, is far-fetched - if a child does not eat vegetable puree and requires only chocolate and sausage, this is a common pedagogical mistake of mom and dad, and you should not look for any medical reasons for such behavior.

Why is the child not eating?

If the little one refuses to eat, he, according to Komarovsky, may have two reasons: he cannot or does not want to eat.

It cannot - this means that the appetite is present, but it is difficult to physically eat. For example, a mother’s milk is tasteless (the woman ate something wrong), the hole in the nipple is too small, and the porridge is not sucked, etc. In infants, quite often, during sucking, the intestines begin to work actively, its peristalsis is activated at the wrong time . The tummy twists, the baby hurts, he stops eating and cries.

Quite often in a child, the root of the problem with appetite lies in the mouth. Stomatitis, inflamed gums during teething, microtrauma of the gums (scratches from toys that have been in the mouth or nails) - all this makes the process of eating food rather unpleasant.

Sometimes there is no appetite during colds or SARS. If the nose does not breathe, then during sucking, access to oxygen is blocked, which is uncomfortable, and the child stops eating. If the throat hurts and swallowing is unpleasant, refusal to eat will almost always follow.

Sometimes the child does not like the offered food itself - it is hot or too cold, salty or unsalted, large or mashed.

It all depends on the personal preferences of each individual child. If moms and dads managed to understand that the child wants to eat, but cannot, then it is best to consult a doctor to find and eliminate the obstacle that prevents the baby from eating normally.

If a child does not eat well or does not eat at all, not because eating gives him discomfort, then he simply does not want to eat. However, you should not immediately accuse him of hooliganism and insist that the porridge be eaten. Reluctance to eat also has its reasons:

• Disease. Even if the parents have not yet noticed that the baby is getting sick, he, as a rule, begins to feel negative changes in his body in advance. In this case, a child who does not eat anything simply "turns on" the defense mechanism - on an empty stomach it is easier for the immune system to fight the pathogen. Do not force feed the baby, he does everything right, as his natural instincts tell him. But this is true only for acute infections. If a child has a long-term chronic illness, lack of appetite is a bad symptom, but this is rare.

  The child's body easily gets used to new conditions for itself, and therefore the baby, with a protracted illness, begins to eat, as usual, and with some ailments, for example, with diabetes, even increased appetite. Komarovsky gives certain recommendations on how to feed a sick child: no way, until he asks. And mother should not be ashamed at all that she does not feed her sick child. This is the best thing she can do now for his speedy recovery.

• Refusal to eat "out of conscience." This happens with teenage children, especially with girls. If she suddenly decides that she has become “fat”, and “something needs to be done about it urgently”, offer the child lighter and healthier foods (salads, boiled meat, fruits, milk). If a girl refuses to eat this too, then fasting becomes pathological and is quite comparable to a symptom of a mental illness that leads to anorexia and the girl's slow death or disability. In this situation, feeding by force is also not an option, says Komarovsky, since it is necessary to eliminate true reason hunger strikes. A psychiatrist and an adolescent psychologist or psychotherapist will help with this.

• Refusal to eat for no reason. There are also children who, without any illness, eat little or practically do not want to eat. They, according to Komarovsky, still have their own reasons for not wanting to eat, such as, individual characteristics metabolism. After all, one child digestion is faster, nutrients are absorbed and absorbed faster, while in others the process is slower. Therefore, such a "slow" child refuses to cook lunch, because he still has breakfast in the process of processing.

Appetite depends on the level of hormones.

If a child grows faster (his mom and dad are tall), that is, he will be bigger and more often than his peer, who genetically “does not shine” with high growth.

The level of energy consumption also affects the presence of appetite. If a child runs and jumps in the fresh air, then he will get hungry faster than if he sits in front of the TV and watches cartoons.

To restore the child's appetite, it is enough to simply adjust the energy consumption.- walk more, enroll your child in the sports section. In the end, the whole family going for evening walks before dinner is sure to give a positive result.

Parental Mistakes

Very often, parents try to treat a non-existent disease. If no serious acute pathologies and infections are found in the child, it can be difficult for parents to admit that the child does not eat because he is not brought up that way. And the testing begins, and there are always diagnoses that “as if they don’t exist” and their treatment is a waste of time and money.

Komarovsky advises to stop dragging the child around clinics and laboratories, leave him alone and simply change the daily routine and lifestyle - introduce longer walks, cool baths, and go in for sports.

Many parents force their child to eat by force.

Yevgeny Komarovsky also refers to these actions his favorite cunning tricks: “Look, the spoon flew, flew”, “Eat, otherwise we won’t go to the park!”, “I’ll tell dad everything!”. A cornered baby under pressure will eat, but without an appetite. And this means that less gastric juice will be allocated, the liver will cope with its part of the work more slowly, digestion will be more difficult. The benefits of force feeding outweigh the harm.

It is also wrong to give food not according to age. If a child does not eat in pieces a year, demanding pureed food, this may be fully justified. If he has only 2 teeth in his mouth, then there is simply nothing to chew on the pieces. However, mothers who have read that the pieces will certainly stimulate the rest of the teeth to grow faster immediately sound the alarm: they say, the appetite has disappeared. Komarovsky calls for a realistic assessment of the capabilities of his child. No one asks to wipe his food up to 5-7 years, but to make it digestible, at least until 6-8 teeth come out, is quite within the power of any parent.

If a child refuses soup for lunch, do not rush him to cook something else. It's also not worth the hassle. Let it work up an appetite. The only thing that can defeat selective appetite is the feeling of hunger. When it becomes real, strong, the poured soup will cause a lot of enthusiasm and will be quickly eaten without any persuasion. The main thing is to offer the child the same soup at the next meal, and not another dish.

A child who suffers from a lack of appetite should not have any snacks between main meals: no apples, no oranges, no sweets.

Such "easy prey" should not be in his reach. This rule must be observed by all family members, it will be especially difficult for grandparents, but we must hold on.

You should not impose your meal schedule on your baby - breakfast, lunch and dinner may not coincide with his regimen. Try not to offer him food at all for at least a day. At the same time, walk, play in the air, but do not say a word about food. The child himself will ask to eat, and will eat everything that you offer him, with excellent appetite.

You will learn more about what to do if the child does not want to eat in the following video.

• Doctor Komarovsky

My Lisa just turned 9 months old. We have constant wars with her over food. It is impossible to feed anything with a spoon - he compresses his lips, grimaces.

And if something gets into the mouth, it immediately spits out in all directions with exclamations of protest. In addition to unnecessary cleaning, as a mother, I am very concerned about the issue of her nutrition! Tell me what to do when a child at 9 months does not eat complementary foods?

I receive quite a lot of similar letters from you. And this says one thing: parents often have problems with the nutrition of babies up to a year old.

Well, let's figure out why a child at 9 months does not eat complementary foods.

When is it time for feeding?

It is pointless to introduce complementary foods before 6 months of age, because before this age, the necessary enzymes simply do not exist in the baby's gastrointestinal tract.

Moreover, if earlier artificial feeders were prescribed an earlier start of complementary foods, since the mixtures did not provide the growing body with all the elements it needs, today the situation has changed.

Modern milk formulas satisfy all the needs of the baby and you can safely introduce complementary foods only at 6 months.

Remember! It makes no sense to start feeding earlier. A small organism is not physiologically ready for the introduction of new products at an early age.

And, by the way, one of the reasons why a baby does not eat complementary foods at 9 months old may be precisely the early introduction of new food, which could provoke digestive problems and the child’s natural protest against this state of affairs.

However, there are other signs that the baby is ready for the introduction of complementary foods, you can use them to navigate and vary the time of its introduction:

• The baby doubled his birth weight (to find out what norms to focus on, read the article Weight gain in newborns by month >>>);
• The reflex of pushing out solid food with the tongue is gone;
• Shows interest in what parents eat

If for some reason the child has not reached the state of readiness, then the start of complementary foods may move more late dates, but do not pull longer than the age of 7 months of the baby.

The late start of complementary foods also leads to the fact that the child’s interest in food has already faded away and you see a picture that a child at 9 months may not want to eat complementary foods.

Other reasons for not feeding

There are also many physiological and psychological reasons why a baby at 9 months does not eat complementary foods.

Among the first are, for example, all kinds of ailments:

1. The baby is teething, tummy ache, fever due to colds or intestinal infections (read the article on the topic temperature during teething >>>);
2. Either the baby was vaccinated the other day and the little body is experiencing stress;
3. Remember the above signs of readiness to start complementary foods.

There are many more psychological reasons:

• Early introduction of complementary foods, when the child is not psychologically ready to receive new products, does not understand what it is and why it is needed;
• Violence or psychological trauma;

If a child is constantly force-fed, suppressing his protests, this only leads to their strengthening.

Maybe the first food the child tasted, he choked and got scared.

• Perhaps a child at 9 months does not eat complementary foods well, because he has not yet had time to get used to new taste sensations;

If you give him time, repeatedly suggesting a new product (but not pushing it in), he may soon try it out.

• The child's tastes are ignored.

Babies up to a year old can be very selective in food, and if the baby does not like some taste, it makes no sense to accustom him to this product without fail.

Remember! Feeding up to a year is only a quarter of the daily diet. The rest of the baby should receive from breast milk or formula.

Therefore, if a child at 9 months does not eat meat or categorically rejects broccoli - to health. Calm down and offer him what you like. Spare the fragile psyche.

• Separate feeding;

If the baby is fed at the children's table, and the parents themselves do not eat at this moment, then the lack of an example of the parents can lead to the fading of interest in food.

In this case, the child begins to eat complementary foods worse and worse.

• Feeding during the game;

If the crumbs are trying to “screw” a spoon or two of adult food, enticing them with rattles, cartoons or having fun, they will most likely perceive this not as feeding, but as a game.

And your spoons, which you bring to your mouth, only distract and unnerve him. Don't try to combine food with play in your child's mind. In the future, this will play a cruel joke.

What to do?

So, what should parents do if their child at 9 months eats little (or refuses to eat at all) complementary foods?

1. Feed him at the common table so that he can see that his parents eat the same food and that they like it very much. That is, in a natural way, form his food interest;
2. Offer complementary foods when your baby is hungry, not after meals. So it is more likely that he will try new food;
3. If the baby refuses to eat from a jar (parents don’t eat that), cook your own food and feed from “adult” dishes;
4. If he does not want to eat from a spoon, let him wield his fingers. Yes, it is not so aesthetically pleasing, but it satisfies the natural research needs of the child;
5. Be patient. Sometimes, in order for the baby to taste the food, he needs to offer it up to 20 times! Naturally, only to offer, and not to push no matter what;
6. Look for an alternative. If a child at 9 months does not eat cottage cheese well, try giving him kefir. He doesn’t want broccoli - replace it with zucchini;
7. Do not listen to idle neighbors or relatives who say that their children at this age have already eaten a full plate of borscht;

• First, it's not exactly useful;
• And secondly, the development and needs of each child are individual, and it is necessary to focus on them.

With the help of the information from the course, you will work on the mistakes step by step and teach your baby to eat a lot, well and with appetite.