First, why do children get anorexia?
Anorexia in children refers to children's long-term loss of appetite and aversion or resistance to eating, especially preschool children. Children's anorexia is mostly caused by bad eating habits. Lack of trace elements and various chronic diseases can lead to anorexia in children.
1, most anorexia is related to bad eating habits. Too many snacks, drinking a lot of drinks before meals, and inattention during meals (such as listening to stories and eating while watching TV) will disturb or inhibit the secretion of gastric acid and digestive enzymes, thus reducing children's appetite.
2. Consequences of parents' long-term forced eating. These parents are often too worried about their children's malnutrition, slow weight gain and low appetite, forcing them to eat. It has greatly affected children's emotions, produced the illusion that "eating equals suffering", gradually formed a conditional refusal to eat, and finally developed into anorexia.
3. A variety of acute and chronic diseases are often accompanied by anorexia. Systemic diseases such as tuberculosis, collagen diseases, anemia and some chronic infections, gastrointestinal diseases such as peptic ulcer, acute and chronic hepatitis, chronic enteritis, liver insufficiency, hypertension, acidosis, uremia, cardiac insufficiency and gastrointestinal congestion, as well as diarrhea and chronic constipation of various reasons are common causes.
4. Long-term medication may lead to anorexia in children. Such as erythromycin, chloramphenicol, sulfanilamide and aminophylline. Excessive intake of vitamin A or vitamin D can lead to poisoning and anorexia in children.
5, zinc deficiency can also lead to anorexia. If the child with anorexia can't find any other explanation, the concentration of zinc in blood or hair can be determined.
In order to avoid children's anorexia, parents need to let their children develop good eating habits, do not eat snacks before meals, concentrate on eating, and not be partial to food or picky eaters; Parents should also be careful not to force their children to eat, in order to avoid children's fear of eating, leading to anorexia.
Second, the symptoms of anorexia in children
The main symptoms of anorexia in children are anorexia and resistance to eating. In addition, children with anorexia will have frequent vomiting, constipation, abdominal distension, abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloody stool and other symptoms.
Anorexia in children is not an independent disease, but just a symptom. Anorexia in children, also known as digestive dysfunction, is very common in childhood. Anorexia in children will have a series of symptoms, which not only reflect the functional or organic diseases of digestive tract, but also often appear in diseases of other systems, especially central nervous system diseases or mental disorders and various infectious diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to inquire about the medical history in detail, closely observe the changes of the disease and make a correct diagnosis and treatment of its primary disease. The symptoms of anorexia in children are as follows:
Stagnation: the child doesn't want to eat, or the food is tasteless, refuses to eat, and his body is thin, but his mental state is acceptable, and the second one is basically normal;
Qi deficiency of spleen and stomach: children have poor spirit, sallow complexion, anorexia and refusal to eat. If they eat less, there are indigestible residues in their stools, or their stools are shapeless, they are prone to sweating and their tongue coating is thin and white.
Deficiency of stomach yin: children have dry mouth, like to drink more and eat less, dry skin, dry stool, less tongue coating and red tongue.
The symptoms of anorexia in children caused by different reasons are different:
1. Due to improper breastfeeding, children often vomit milk, with sour taste in the mouth, full abdominal distension, sour stool, red tongue and white greasy fur. Children often spit sour food residues, and when pressing the abdomen, they can feel severe pain, foul stool, white greasy tongue coating and purple fingerprints.
2. Phlegm-dampness breeds anorexia, the child is emaciated or puffy, does not think about diet, vomits and spits, loose stool has a dull and pale complexion, a white greasy tongue coating, a slippery pulse and reddish fingerprints.
3. Anorexia due to insect injury to the spleen, the child's face is pale, his muscles are emaciated, he is mentally uneasy, he doesn't want to eat, he likes to eat foreign bodies, he grinds his teeth while sleeping, he has abdominal pain and abdominal distension, irregular stool, green spots on his sclera, white spots on his face and white spots on his lips.
Third, anorexia examination
In most cases, anorexia is a symptom that children don't want to eat for psychological reasons. Parents can judge whether their children have anorexia by observing their food intake.
Before the diagnosis of anorexia in children, it is necessary to rule out whether children have colds, chronic medical diseases, digestive tract diseases and other diseases, because peptic ulcer, acute and chronic hepatitis, chronic enteritis and other diseases will cause anorexia in children, and anorexia will improve after the disease is cured, so it is necessary to check the above diseases.
It is necessary to know the medical history, physical examination and necessary laboratory examination to rule out the influence of digestive system diseases and systemic diseases on the digestive tract. It can be judged by the following steps:
1, depending on age. If it is found that infants under 1 year old, especially newborns, have obvious anorexia, most of them are caused by diseases, which may be sepsis, tuberculosis, rickets and various nutritional deficiencies. Older children should pay special attention to eating habits, daily life, family environment and so on; Because of the family with good family environment, children are easy to develop bad eating habits and like to eat snacks, which is easy to cause anorexia;
2. Look at the degree of loss of appetite. If it is a mild loss of appetite, it may be too much snacks, or the weather and mood are bad. If the situation is serious, it may be anorexia or other potential diseases;
3. Are there any symptoms? If the child has a mild loss of appetite, but is still lively and happy, it is mostly normal. If accompanied by fatigue, listlessness and low fever, it is mostly tuberculosis or other infections. People with abdominal pain and bloody stool should pay attention to gastroduodenal ulcers and parasites. Slow response, rough skin, less sweating, dysplasia, attention should be paid to hypothyroidism. Hyperhidrosis, beaded ribs, square forehead, skull softening and other skeletal changes are rickets;
4. Inspection of trace elements. Through the examination of trace elements, it is helpful to find out which trace element deficiency leads to anorexia and to judge. Generally speaking, zinc deficiency can easily lead to anorexia in children.
If parents find that their children do suffer from anorexia through observation, they need to take them to the hospital for proper treatment. At the same time, actively correct children's inappropriate eating habits and gradually let children return to normal diet.
4. What about anorexia in children?
The treatment of anorexia in children needs symptomatic treatment according to the cause. If anorexia is caused by improper diet, we should correct bad eating habits, focus on restoring children's digestive function, and let children take it with Chinese medicine to achieve the effect of appetizing and strengthening the spleen. If anorexia is caused by trace element deficiency or disease, parents should supplement trace elements to their children, actively treat the disease and let them recover as soon as possible. The following processing methods can be used:
1. Oral administration of traditional Chinese medicine: including decoction treatment and Chinese patent medicine treatment. The decoction can be modified by Buhuanjin Zhengqi Powder, commonly used in Rhizoma Atractylodis, Pericarpium Citri Tangerinae, Eupatorium, Herba Pogostemonis, Rhizoma Pinelliae, Fructus Aurantii, Massa Medicata Fermentata, Chicken Gold, Malt, etc. For patients with abdominal distension, cauliflower seeds and radix aucklandiae can be added. Coicis Semen can be added for damp-heat stagnation; If you feel uncomfortable, you can add Amomum villosum and Coicis Semen. Chinese patent medicine can be Ji Hua oral liquid, Xiaoshi Jianer syrup, etc.
2, acupuncture therapy: four stitches, after routine disinfection, first stab the liquid out until bleeding, repeat after 3 days.
3, acupoint injection therapy: Vitamin B 12 1mg can be injected into the left and right Zusanli points respectively.
4, massage therapy: using methods such as pushing the spleen meridian, dividing the abdomen into yin and yang, transporting the eight diagrams, rubbing the abdomen, and chiropractic.
5. External application therapy: "Kaiwei Powder" is made of Chinese medicinal powder such as Rhizoma Picrorhizae, Massa Medicata Fermentata, Fructus Aurantii, Radix Aucklandiae, Pericarpium Citri Tangerinae, etc. and applied externally to navel for treatment.
6. Zinc supplementation: Zinc can quickly regenerate taste bud cells, improve the sensitivity of taste buds and improve digestive function. The effective rate for children with zinc deficiency is over 90%.
In addition to cooperating with the treatment, parents should gradually correct their children's bad eating habits in order to effectively avoid their anorexia.
Once the child has anorexia, the child often doesn't want to eat, and the mother is very worried and anxious when she looks at her body getting thinner day by day. Child anorexia will definitely affect the baby's growth and development. It is best to actively adopt these anorexia treatments mentioned in this article.