Who doesn’t want a healthy baby? In fact, we all want our kids to remain active and healthy all the time. But the problem is kids do not want to eat well. As a result, it may hamper their physical and mental growth.

‘How to increase appetite in a child?’, a common question that is asked by parents in various Facebook groups. Let’s have a look at the causes and solutions:

Some common complaints of mothers:

• Their kids do not eat enough.
• They like to eat their favorite foods again and again. 
• Babies who are breastfed don’t like foods other than breastmilk.  
• They don’t want to eat vegetables and fruits. 

Causes:

Solutions:

• From the beginning, you need to maintain a proper meal plan. Your child should have 3 meals and 2 snacks a day. 
• Serve foods on a colorful plate. Eye-catching plates increase appetite in babies.
• Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We serve oatmeal with dates and nuts to our baby. He enjoys it so much. You should never skip breakfast. A healthy breakfast increases appetite in babies. Moreover, it also makes kids active throughout the day. 
• You should decide what food to feed. Your child is responsible for how much to eat. Babies and toddlers may not accept new foods easily. You should be patient and try feeding him new foods sometimes. Eventually, your baby will like the food. 
• We offer our 22-month-old child a variety of foods, such as red rice, chicken, beef, fish, egg, yogurt, green vegetables, fruits, nuts, and oats etc. That’s why he loves to eat. You should ensure that your baby gets carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, fat, and minerals from the foods every day. We have food charts for 7 months – 1 year old babies on our blog.  Don’t feed your baby potato chips, soft drinks and other packaged juices. 
• Serve foods that are adequate in fat. Fat content makes food delicious and kids really love them. Avocados, cheese, and whole eggs are high in fat. 
• Sometimes you can offer pasta and noodles. These are some of the favorite foods of kids. 
• Deficiency in zinc reduces appetite in kids. Feed your kid foods that contain an adequate amount of zinc, such as nuts, beans, spinach, and mushrooms.
• Feed your baby foods that contain enough iron, such as red meat, spinach and beans.  Children (1 to 9  years) need 7 to 10 milligrams of iron every day (source)
• Deficiency in vitamin D causes loss of appetite. Give your child foods that contain vitamin D: salmon fish, egg yolks, and mushrooms etc. But the best source of vitamin D is sunlight. We take our kid to sunlight every day. If you are interested to know more we have a blog post on the importance of sunlight for babies. 
• Make sure that your kid takes meals with all the members of the family. It will increase your baby’s appetite for food. Don’t feed him or her separately.
• Allow your little champ to eat as much as he wants. Never force your baby while feeding. 
• Let your kid experiment, feel, mash, and smell the food. It will grow his or her interest in the foods. 
• Make family mealtimes entertaining. Talk and pay attention to your baby. Never argue, or fight during mealtime. 
• Turn the television and smartphones off during mealtime as they may cause distraction. 
• Make foods more interesting. Cook vegetables with butter and sauces. Babies just love it. Serve oatmeal with raisins, dates and nuts. If you want to learn more we have a post about the benefits and recipe of oatmeal. 
• You can cook foods in front of your kids (2 year+) and encourage them to help you while cooking. 
• Make sure that your toddler is getting enough exercise every day. Encourage him or her to walk and run outside. Exercise increases hunger in babies.
• Give them water 30 minutes before the meal.
• There should be a gap of about 3 hours between the meals.

Which foods increase appetite?

• Ginger
• Cinnamon
• Peanuts
• Pomegranate
• Mint

All the mothers want their kids to become taller and stronger. Children need adequate food to remain healthy. However, loss of appetite hampers the brain development of babies and toddlers. Therefore, proper measures should be taken to solve the problem.