Common Nutrition Problems in Children

Nutritional and dietary requirements differ in children from that of adults because they are at a growing stage. Nutrition that is vital for human becomes more critical for the children’s growth. However, it becomes challenging for the parents to make sure whether the child is receiving proper nutrients in their daily routine. Following are the general nutritional problems related to children.

Failure to Thrive

This term refers to the kids who are not gaining weight with their age, and their weight is not within the line of a healthy weight range according to their body type. Their height also seems shorter than that of their age fellows. Due to these reasons, the healthy development of a kid is affected, and the puberty may be delayed. While failure to thrive can be due to medical problems such as hormone problem, metabolism problem, organ problems, the problem with genes or deficient nutrient. The failure to succeed that is caused due to poor diet can be treated by following a proper diet that includes the use of vegetables, fruits, grains and all those food items that are rich in vitamins, calcium and protein that their body needs to grow.

Food Refusal

Food refusal is the other problem of poor nutrition in children. Some children are very picky in case of food and eating habits. It might be due to their food taste, colors or textures of the food. Therefore, parents should make sure that their child tastes everything and should make them adopt the habit of eating what they are served from an early age. In this way, they would be able to get proper nutrition by having a variety of foods.

Allergy and Intolerance

Food allergy could be commonly seen in the kids due to certain factors like Gluten and lactose intolerance nowadays. Most children have allergy from eggs, milk and peanuts. Due to this, kids don’t get certain nutrients due to which deficiencies occur in their body that affects their growth process. For instance, if a child has an allergy from milk or has lactose intolerance, the calcium intake in their body could be affected. In such a case, you need to talk to the physician about the supplements to fulfil the deficiency.

Iron Deficiency – Anemia

An iron deficiency causes Anemia in which the body don’t have enough red blood cells. It is mostly seen in the children lacking the use of milk and dairy products in their diet. The symptoms of iron deficiency include weakness, pale skin, chest pain, fast heartbeat, head-ache, breathing problems, cold hands and feet. To avoid such a problem, parents should make sure that their children have iron rich food apart from their daily diet.