The Child Who Doesn't Want to Eat: Why Does It Happen?

Abstract

One of the most frequent complaints in pediatric offices is the child don’t want to eat, which causes a lot of concern among parents, generating stress and several attempts to insist that the child eat. The reasons for this behavior are diverse, varying with the child's age, family relationships and social contexts. Faced with this challenge, it is important to know some of the different characteristics of children from birth. This article is a non-systematic review whose objective is to present some of the most important characteristics of children, their nutritional needs, the physiology of the development of the digestive system and how neurological and emotional maturation occurs, seeking to integrate all factors related to the act of eating to help health professionals and family members to better understand and resolve this common problem in childhood.