How does pediatric anorexia arise? Poor appetite in children, which is more common in children aged 6 months to 3 years, is the most worrying problem for parents. In some cases, the child’s physical development fails to reach normal standards due to a prolonged loss of appetite (called anorexia), which often leads to illness and affects intellectual development. So, how does a child develop anorexia? First, let’s talk about the formation mechanism of appetite. Why do people feel hungry and want to eat? This is mainly caused by the absence of food in the stomach, in addition, the blood sugar level decreases, the organization uses less sugar. It also makes a person feel hungry. In this case, the lower thalamic feeding center is excited, so the feeding activity begins. When the stomach is full of food, blood glucose levels rise, tissue utilization of sugar increases, the lower thalamus satiety center excitation, the person will feel full, stop eating. The mental activity of the human brain also affects eating, such as mental stress, even if there is no food in the stomach do not want to eat. Secondly, let’s talk about the characteristics of pediatric appetite and taste. Taste and appetite are closely related, if the sense of taste is poor, appetite will be reduced. There is a critical period in the development of the sense of taste of children, if the child is not given the necessary taste stimulation during this period, the child’s ability to distinguish between various flavors will be reduced, and the taste of the food given in the future is not accustomed to, and anorexia occurs. So, when should you give your child taste stimulation? When an infant transitions from sucking milk in the liquid state to chewing food in the solid state, the taste function is greatly exercised. Newborns about the end of the first month, the formation of a scented food conditioned reflex; the second month of the formation of a sweet food conditioned reflex; from the fourth month onwards, infants will be able to differentiate between different flavors such as sour, sweet, bitter, salty and so on. At this time, if you can gradually add a variety of timely catch food, give rich taste stimulation, can make the child with a good sense of taste, the later food will have a normal appetite. If the child is allowed to breastfeed for too long . More than 6 months do not add complementary foods, so that it does not get a variety of taste stimulation, missed the critical period of taste development, and then give the catch food can not be adapted to, the baby is bent on milk, and even affect the children’s lifelong appetite. Therefore, it is very important to add all kinds of complementary foods in time at 4-6 months.