Index
Among the thousands of parents’ concerns about their children, food is at the top of the list. Since questioning whether they are eating properly is inevitable since it is the main point to maintain the child’s health and development as expected. However, infantile eating disorders are increasingly affecting younger children and causing great concern for parents.
In the past, when we talked about eating disorders, we soon thought of adults with eating problems who suffered from their weight or even the binge eating generated by the levels of anxiety that adult life gives us with so many concerns and responsibilities. What has changed in statics, pointing more and more children under 10 years old suffering from these problems that would be adults.
Infantile eating disorders occur without showing any signs and can start even in the breastfeeding phase, being more common today in children from 5 years of age. It is not clear why, as each child may develop a disorder for their particular reasons. Some of them, following the example of their parents and seeing the great concern about not “getting fat”, decide that they should not eat to be accepted in their class or even isolate themselves from others, believing that it is not part of the standard of other children. These are the first steps and signs that the problem is happening and should be observed carefully by parents and guardians.
Children who suffer from these disorders usually have a profile and behave in a very similar way. They tend to be more fragile in their actions, do not accept being inferior to others and are totally perfectionist in all their routine and, over time, exhibit self-destructive behavior, since it is all or nothing and does not accept losing or not achieving their goal. Parents should be aware of their children’s different behavior and if they notice that some meals are being skipped or even going to the bathroom mainly at mealtime or afterwards it is a warning sign, in addition to the evident and rapid weight loss.
Children usually have difficulty with food at least at one stage of their life and it is not because he did not want to have lunch today or the following week or because he denied having a snack that you should worry or think he is suffering from eating disorders. In some stages of childhood it is quite common to affect appetite and the child to stop eating some foodswho previously accepted so well or even reduced the amount of food he consumed throughout the day. If you notice any different symptoms, lose weight or delay growth, and if your child is refusing to eat at all meals, it is recommended that you talk to your trusted pediatrician who will recommend the best treatment. In some cases an appetite stimulant together with some vitamin supplements can help to solve the case.
Child Anxiety vs. Food
Unlike childhood eating disorders, another villain who probes parents’ lives is anxiety that triggers a problem that is the opposite of lack of food. Childhood anxiety, if not properly treated, can cause very serious disorders through binge eating and trigger a child with obesity problems and other issues that may further harm their health such as high cholesterol.
Anxious children who are unable to control themselves end up discounting this energy and anxiety in food and end up eating more than necessary and even already satiated . They eat for being happy, they eat when they are sad, they eat for simply eatingand not being able to control that desire. This anxiety that generates binge eating is a disease and must be treated properly so that weight gain does not become uncontrolled. Childhood anxiety can present itself in the first years of life and tends to occur more in girls. The stress factor, excessive charges, worry or even boredom can cause a child to start eating in an uncontrolled way and likewise gain weight uncontrollably directly affecting his health. This excessive weight gain causes heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and can lead to type 2 diabetes in addition to affecting self-esteem, especially in adolescence.
The best way to treat a child with an anxiety problem and control their binge eating is to talk to the pediatrician and request an indication for behavioral therapy or even psychotherapy. Some cases may be recommended to use medications with a calming action or even antidepressants to combat the highest and most worrying symptoms or perhaps the practice of physical exercise to discharge and control this anxiety. A child who is not treated as a child can become a teenager with the same problems, but in a more aggravating way as each day that passes is losing control of the situation. The best way to combat it is to treat it from the beginning and face the issue head on so that anxiety does not take over everything and thus directly affects all points of the child’s life, not only physical, but also psychological.
See also: BLW Method for Infant Feeding
My name is Dr. Alexis Hart I am 38 years old, I am the mother of 3 beautiful children! Different ages, different phases 16 years, 12 years and 7 years. In love with motherhood since always, I found it difficult to make my dreams come true, and also some more after I was already a mother.
Since I imagined myself as a mother, in my thoughts everything seemed to be much easier and simpler than it really was, I expected to get pregnant as soon as I wished, but it wasn’t that simple. The first pregnancy was smooth, but my daughter’s birth was very troubled. Joana was born in 2002 with a weight of 2930kg and 45cm, from a very peaceful cesarean delivery but she had already been born with congenital pneumonia due to a broken bag not treated with antibiotics even before delivery.
