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Many parents have the misconception that "child anorexia is not a disease and will get better when they grow up." In fact, anorexia is a common disease in childhood .
"Anorexia refers to a long-term loss of appetite or food intake, or even a refusal to eat, in addition to excluding systemic or digestive tract organic diseases such as hepatitis, tuberculosis , peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis. "A common disease." Yao Jing, director of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine at Xuzhou Children's Hospital, said that the disease can occur in children of all ages, and is more common in children aged 1-6 years. In addition, the disease can occur in any season and is easily aggravated in summer.
"Some children only show anorexia in summer. That is because the weather is hot and the child has a temporary loss of appetite. We call it seasonal anorexia. If the symptoms are not severe, we will not deal with it."
But if the child has appetite The decline time is relatively long, and there is no timely intervention, the consequences are more troublesome: anorexia lingers for a long time, which can lead to a lack of energy and blood biochemistry, reduced disease resistance, and prone to other diseases, or even affect growth and development. Therefore, we call on parents to pay attention to it and achieve early detection and early treatment.
How can we detect it early? Yao Jing suggested that as long as the child has a loss of appetite, he should be observed for a few days after eliminating the triggers. If he still cannot resume normal eating, he should go to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment. Generally speaking, for children with anorexia, routine examination items mainly include blood routine, trace elements, vitamins and gastrointestinal electrograms.
Why do children have anorexia? Yao Jing said that anorexia is mostly caused by improper feeding, spleen damage caused by other diseases, congenital deficiencies, and emotional disorders. Among them, improper feeding is often the key reason for the increase in children with anorexia.
In the process of feeding children, one-sided emphasis on the intake of highly nutritious foods will lead to an unreasonable diet structure. Over time, it will affect the child's spleen and stomach function and lead to anorexia. Children's spleen and stomach functions are relatively weak. In the past, they consumed too much high-energy food and could not digest it, which easily caused food accumulation . For children with relatively strong spleen and stomach digestive abilities, a long-term high-energy diet may also cause problems. Such children are not picky about food and absorb well, and are prone to hypermetabolic syndrome, such as high blood pressure, high blood fat, high blood sugar, etc.
1, Late introduction of complementary foods, excessive milk supply, etc. will lead to anorexia in the baby.
If the baby has anorexia, parents should reflect on whether the complementary foods are not added on time, or drink too much milk, or The time for drinking milk is unreasonable.
"Some parents always think that their breast milk is sufficient and they add complementary foods later, which is actually wrong." Yao Jing said that the baby's taste sensitive period is 4-6 months, and the food texture sensitive period is 6-7 months Month, if complementary foods are not added in time during this period, the child will be more likely to develop anorexia and partial eclipse after 1 year old.
When adding complementary foods, parents should pay attention to the principle of "from less to more, from thin to thicker, from simple to complex". After a few days for the child to adapt to one kind of food, add another kind of food to avoid the child's intestinal tract infection. Tao is intolerant.
In addition, the time of drinking milk is also very important. Many parents like to give their children milk powder before going to bed. This feeding method can also easily damage the child's spleen and stomach. After a child goes to bed, the digestive capacity of the stomach is very weak at night. Drinking a large amount of milk at this time can easily cause food accumulation, affect the child's appetite the next morning, and lead to bad breath and bad temper. In addition, because there is undigested food in the stomach, it will directly affect the child's sleep. Going to bed late and having poor sleep quality will also affect the secretion of growth hormone in children.
2, If you want to avoid spleen and stomach "strike", don't give your children too much fruits, snacks, etc.
If you want to avoid food accumulation, the most critical step is to control it from the source.For the majority of parents, it is necessary to achieve scientific feeding, not to feed their children too much indiscriminately, and not to indulge their children in eating whatever they want and as much as they want.
It is understood that many children are unwilling to eat vegetables, so parents want their children to eat more fruits, thinking that this can replace vegetables to supplement vitamins. However, parents have overlooked some problems. Most fruits are cold, and most fruits are from other places or out of season, so they are not conducive to digestion. Children may easily damage their spleen and stomach after eating too much, and they are not conducive to the absorption of vitamins and trace elements. absorb.
Irregular eating habits are also an important cause of anorexia in children. Many parents dote on their children and eat whenever their children are hungry. Sometimes, they will give their children some biscuits, bread and other snacks to satisfy their hunger before meal time. By the time it is time to eat, the children are already full. This will cause pseudo anorexia, that is, the child does not not want to eat, but snacks replace the meal.
Some parents, especially grandfathers and grandmothers, like to chase their children to feed them, thinking that this can make their children eat more. As everyone knows, this kind of feeding method can easily cause children to have a rebellious mentality and lose interest in eating.
Of course, in addition to improper feeding, children with other diseases and congenital deficiencies may also suffer from anorexia due to weak spleen and stomach functions. It should be noted that children are timid and easily frightened. Be careful of sudden frights, beatings and scoldings, or changes in the environment, which may cause the child to become emotionally depressed, which may lead to liver imbalance, poor qi movement, the spleen and stomach, and anorexia.
3, The anorexia clinic specializes in treating diseases, and uses external treatment methods to help children move their spleen and appetite
According to reports, anorexia involves many factors such as the child's feeding method and individual constitution. It is difficult to achieve a cure for both the symptoms and the root causes only through temporary Western medicine treatment. Effect. In response to this, the Pediatric Anorexia Clinic of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Xuzhou Children's Hospital has given full play to the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine to treat children's anorexia based on syndrome differentiation.
Yao Jing said that traditional Chinese medicine believes that the spleen governs transportation and transformation, and the stomach governs reception. The spleen and stomach are responsible for the reception, digestion, absorption and transfer of food. If the spleen and stomach are healthy, the appetite will be normal. If the spleen and stomach are not functioning well, anorexia may be seen.
The traditional Chinese medicine anorexia clinic of Xuzhou Children's Hospital focuses on external treatments, including medicinal baths, massage, traditional Chinese medicine application and pick therapy. There is no need to worry about the side effects of drugs with these methods, and obvious results can be achieved in a short period of time.
If you want to prevent anorexia in your children or take care of your children with anorexia, what should parents do properly? Yao Jing suggested that it is best to grasp the following points: after 4 months of age, babies should gradually and reasonably add complementary foods; ensure that the child's diet is reasonable, avoid fat, sweet and thick flavors, eat less fruit, and do not drink milk before going to bed; eat according to the schedule, and eat regularly, Let the children take matters into their own hands; when symptoms of loss of appetite occur, the cause should be identified promptly and targeted treatment measures should be taken; oral medications should be taken as directed by the doctor, and do not abuse the children by themselves; the child should gradually increase his or her diet as soon as he or she recovers from illness. , do not let them overeat or overeat to cause further injury to the spleen and stomach.
Yao Jing finally emphasized that parents should strengthen their children's mental care, cultivate their children's good character, and never scold or scold them. When changing the living environment, it is necessary to guide the children to adapt gradually to prevent the children from damaging their spleen and stomach due to fear and anger.
Yao Jing
Deputy Chief Physician of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Director of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Master of Traditional Chinese Medicine Pediatrics Graduated from Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Member of the Chinese Medical Association, Member of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Appropriate Technology Evaluation and Promotion Committee of the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies, National Maternal and Child Health Care Member of the Promotion Association, director of the Xuzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Association, and member of the Cardiovascular Professional Committee of the Xuzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Association. She further studied in pediatrics at the First Affiliated Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and participated in many seminars and studies of the National Association for the Promotion of Maternal and Child Health Care. He has been engaged in TCM diagnosis and treatment of common pediatric diseases for more than ten years and has published many papers.Specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of recurrent respiratory tract infections, bronchitis, bronchopneumonia, child asthma, acute and chronic diarrhea, anorexia, malnutrition and other diseases.
graphics | Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine
editor | Gao Yuyang Zhao Hengxin
review | Jiang Wei
producer | Wencheng
