Question

My child is just over six months old and has had eczema in the past, which is still not completely healed, but there’s no major problem. The main issue is that he is particularly picky about food. Due to almost not eating anything (except breast milk, which is not enough), he often wakes up several times at night. What should I do? Please help!

Answer

Hello: Nowadays, many children are only children, and more and more children are experiencing a condition known as selective eating disorder. The most important psychological factor causing picky eating in children is forcing them to eat. Some parents often have a sense of compulsion when feeding their children. For example, using a spoon to feed them, using rewards and punishments to stimulate their appetite, using delicious foods to induce hunger, letting them choose whatever they want to eat, offering snacks in addition to meals, and even playing while chasing them to force them to eat. Many parents worry about their children’s decreased appetite after six months of age. In fact, the growth rate of a child’s weight can slow down as they grow older, and their eating volume will also decrease proportionally with age. Attempting to make a child with a small appetite eat more often leads to the opposite result. When forced to eat, children can normally refuse. From nine months to three years old, this is a common feature. Additionally, children can also form conditioned reflexive refusal of food. Every time they are given food, they associate it with the forced measures and punishments, making the child very unhappy and causing emotional stimulation leading to picky eating.