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Infant physiological anorexia usually occurs in the 3-6 months after birth, which is a transitional stage caused by the physiological development of the baby. Usually after a period of time and related improvement measures, the situation of anorexia can be improved, and parents have no need to worry too much. However, if the period of anorexia lasts too long (more than 2 months), its weight is gradually no longer moderately increased and has dropped two percentiles on the growth curve or the baby has abdominal distention, vomiting, fever or shortness of breath, poor vitality and other conditions in addition to anorexia, these symptoms should be treated immediately and should not be ignored.

Common causes of physiological anorexia

• The baby's taste buds begin to develop, and it is less interested in the same old milk and wants to try new flavors.
• At this stage, the baby's cognitive development is rapid, and it is more and more interested in the outside world. Because of its curiosity about the surrounding environment, it likes to play and doesn't pay attention to eating milk.
• The growth rate slows down. At this time, the baby's growth rate slows, and the demand for nutrition and calories is not as large as before, so babies at this time are not as fond of eating as they were in the newborn period.
• The baby begins to grow teeth, so it loves to bite things, but doesn’t like sucking.

Characteristics of physiological anorexia

• Babies’ spirit and activity are very good, but they don't feel hungry! They will turn their head away or cry during feeding, and will push out its mother's nipples or the nipple on a baby's bottle with its tongue when forced to eat, or will not swallow and let the milk flow out.
• Easily distracted when drinking milk. When it comes to the period of anorexia, the baby often stops drinking because of the activity around it, for example, people passing by in its line of sight or noise generated (TV, radio, voice of conversation), etc.

How to help the baby get through the period of anorexia?

• Feed them with unfixed quantities at regular times without compulsion

Forcing the baby to finish drinking is easy to cause it to be afraid of eating or milk. But you still need to feed them on schedule with the amount given based on its wishes. Do not force feeding if your baby does not want to drink it and wait until the next feeding time. Therefore, the baby in the period of anorexia will have the problem of large and small meals. As long as the intake of milk in 24 hours can reach 80-100 ml per kilogram of body weight, it will meet the basic needs of a day, and will not affect the health in the short term!

• Physical exertion increases hunger

During the day, you can exhaust your baby's physical strength through games, massage and other ways to increase its sense of hunger to improve eating conditions.

• Improve dining atmosphere

At this stage, the baby starts to be curious about the outside world. If there is a lot of noise or activity that attract its attention during the meal, the baby will find these things more interesting than "milk drinking," and naturally will not want to eat it. Let your baby feed in a quiet and soft-lighted space instead of an environment full of voices, radio and TV sounds.

• Change the way you feed

Normally speaking, the baby starts to grow teeth at about 6 months, but some babies will be as early as 3 months, so they love to bite and grind things to relieve the discomfort caused by tooth growth, and of course, they don't like milk. You can change the way you feed by using a spoon, which may make your baby accept out of freshness!

• Baby bottle nipple sizes should be appropriate

It could be that the hole in the nipple on the baby bottle is too small, so that the baby has trouble sucking, thus reducing the amount of milk consumed. You may turn the bottle upside down first and check whether the hole in the nipple can let the milk flow out smoothly. Usually the best speed is about one drop per second!

• Don't mix milk with medicine for feeding

Some parents are worried that their baby will not take medicine, so they mix the medicine with the milk, but most babies will find that the taste of milk is different, so they reject it. It is suggested that the medicine should not be used together with the milk.

• Change the time of feeding

In the face of babies who are tired of milk, you can attempt to feed them when they are half asleep and half awake. You may feed them when they are about to fall asleep, during which they would drink more and faster, and they are less likely to be distracted by the external environment.

• Add non-staple foods when appropriate

If the baby has reached the age of eating non-staple food (4-6 months) and has no special family history of allergy, you may add non-staple food in due time. In addition to early training of the baby's oral swallowing coordination function, it can also address the problem of unbalanced diets during anorexia.