Question
A 4-year-old girl has poor eating habits, sometimes able to eat half a bowl of rice, but most of the time she can only consume a small half bowl, and often has the habit of chewing food without swallowing.
Answer
Pediatric anorexia refers to the symptoms of decreased appetite or long-term lack of appetite in children aged 3 to 6, which is not an independent disease. Some chronic diseases such as peptic ulcers, chronic hepatitis, tuberculosis, dyspepsia, and long-term constipation may lead to anorexia (about 9%). However, most pediatric anorexia is not caused by diseases (about 86%), but rather due to poor eating habits, imbalanced diet, adverse eating environment, and psychological factors between parents and children. The causes of anorexia in non-sick children include irregular eating patterns, lack of fixed meal times, excessively long or short eating times, which disrupt the normal digestive function of the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, continuous snacking leads to dysregulation of gastrointestinal motility and secretion.