You might be worried when your child doesn’t meet the expected standards of child growth. Aren’t you? This is mostly because you know that children steadily gain weight and grow quickly within the first few years of life. Well, you should know that poor weight gain is one of the common problems in children. Read on to learn more.
Reasons for not gaining weight
Listed below are the most common reasons for not gaining weight in children.
- Inadequate intake of calories
The most common reason that accounts for more than 90% of poor weight gain in children is the inadequate intake of calories. This can occur when your child is not interested in eating due to variety of reasons, or when there is a lack of understanding by the parents regarding the caloric needs of the child. This happens with toddlers who are less interested in eating. For even younger children in their first few months of life, this might be due to an inadequate supply of breast milk or to the improper mixing of formula in a formula-fed baby.
- Heightened oral sensitivity or neurological issues
Your child might also not feed well if your child has heightened oral sensitivity or neurological issues. Such problems might affect their ability to swallow and might be caused by conditions such as cerebral palsy or a cleft palate.
- Excessive vomiting
Occasionally, your child cannot keep formula or food down due to excessive vomiting. This might be due to severe acid reflux. If your child has neurological problems, this causes low muscle tone and a variety of other disorders. Most children with acid reflux will improve and their growth will continue without issue. Less frequently, a younger infant with excessive vomiting might have a narrowing of the outlet of the stomach called pyloric stenosis.
- Inability to digest food
If your child is not able to digest food due to poor capacity of the pancreas, then your child might not gain weight well. In this situation, parents report their children as having bulky, frothy, loose, foul-smelling and greasy stools.
- Disorders
Disorders affecting the lining of the bowel, including celiac disease or Crohn’s disease can also cause children to have poor weight gain. In celiac disease, symptoms start as soon as foods that contain gluten are introduced into the diet. In some situations, your child might burn too many calories if your child has an over-active thyroid gland. Rarely, kidney failure or other kidney disorders will affect weight gain by affecting certain mechanisms of child growth. Moreover, some children might have genetic disorders that affect weight gain and require evaluations by specialists.
When to book an appointment
If you’re concerned that your child is not gaining weight well, you should book an appointment with your homeopath as soon as possible. Your child would need a good physical exam and homeopath will look for signs of medical disorders other than simply inadequate caloric and nutritional intake. A homeopath will conduct a detailed clinical assessment of your child’s physical and mental growth. The following parameters are important to design a customized treatment plan for your child.
- Height and weight records
- Details of your child’s growth milestones as well as the mother’s pregnancy history to identify developmental delay
- Identifying underlying medical illnesses, behavioral issues and environmental triggers at home or school
- Eating patterns of your child
Conclusion
When there is a significant drop in weight with a single measurement, that might be concerning. In this situation, the child will have to be seen by a homeopath and re-measured in order to see if the drop in weight is significant enough to warrant further action. Homeopathy treatment is easy, safe, and comes without any side effects. The sweet-tasting homeopathic pills make it easier for parents to take their children through the treatment process.
