Ways to increase appetite in children especially school going ones
Children, especially school going ones lose appetite because of the following reasons:• During growth period appetite may temporarily decrease
• Irregular meals
• Food allergies or digestive issues
• Being inactive may reduce hunger
• Home environment and meal time dynamics can influence appetite
• Their taste preferences
• Changes in routine
• Emotional issues
We can increase the appetite in children in the following ways
• By offering variety of foods: As children normally interested in variety of foods by seeing in hotels or through friends Tiffin boxes and sometimes not able to express that, we can offer the variety of foods in home.
• Maintaining a regular meal scheme. In home we can fix time for food at regular intervals.
• Encouraging family meals. By keeping aside the tight schedules relaxed, family elders can have food collectively during dinner at least.
• We can create a pleasant eating environment. We can make the meal times enjoyable and stress free and especially talking freely on general topics.
• Elders in the house should be a role model. It has been observed in many houses children do avoid sweets by seeing their either parents avoiding sweets due to diabetic etc., In some houses elders skipping breakfast etc., By seeing this, the children do follow their parents.
• Distractions like watching mobiles, Televisions, reading books or discussing serious matters etc., during the meal time should be either minimised or totally avoided
• Eating snacks should compulsorily be avoided two hours before lunch or dinner. It has been seen in many houses, giving snacks to the children in the late evening and calling them for dinner which results in them poor eating dinner.
• It is good to involving the children in food preparation as it makes them more interesting in eating
• It is good to respect their likes and dislikes, don't force them to eat all foods.