My 6 Year Old Daughter Is Refusing to Eat

Please check with your Dr. just for safty, she may just be going through a stage but better safe than sorry later.

To make you feel better take her to the Dr. and reasure your self that she is fine. Kids go though phases of eating and not eating. Usually when they start eating a lot they start to grow, when they slow down growing they do slow down eating. If she is hungry she will eat.

About 2 weeks ago, several children in my playgroup, including my daughter, had a stomach bug like you described. One episode of throwing up, then not eating well for several days. It was about a week later before my daughter was eating "normally" again. She acted like she didn not feel well - looked sleepy and irritable, but said her tummy did not hurt. Viruses can take 10 - 14 days to work themselves out of your system, so I'd say give it a few more days and if she does not return to normal for her, consulting a doctor wouldn't hurt. (My daughter is almost 5.) I will say that my daughter eats more food when I do not give her juice to drink - that seems to fill her up too much. If your daughter is especially lethargic, doesn't have energy to make it through the day, then you should call the doctor.

At age 6 she knows when she is hungry. She will eat when she is hungry.

Ask her if anything hurts or if her tummy is upset. If she says yes, then take her to the Dr. My boys (11,8,4) still only eat one GOOD meal a day.

Just make sure what you are offering her is good food and not junk.

I believe there is a stomach bug going around. However, is it possible that this is heat related? Whenever it gets really hot outside (like it has been lately), I find myself not wanting to eat much. Have you tried "cool" foods like refrigerated fresh fruit, refrigerated baby carrots, etcetera? Sometimes I can eat something cool like that when I can't stand anything else. Like your daughter, I was always rather slim, but I've never starved yet. LOL. Best wishes!

As long as she is eating something and is thriving (good color, shiny hair, bright eyes) she is fine.

My niece has never been into "eating". She does it cause she gets hungry, but unlike the rest of us in the family, food is just not a big deal to her. She is still very active in Soccer, track, swimming, running and riding her bike, so the doctor said not to worry about it..

Now one thing is, she drinks a lot of liquids, always has. They just make sure what she drinks is not junk.

i know a girl that is very underweight for being six. she dose not stay at the dinner table and eat but takes a bite runs around and before long her dinner is frogotten. perhaps sitting with her at the table and enjoying dinner time will help.

Yes, there is a stomach bug going around. It's bad.
Try BRAT- bananas, rice, applesauce or toast for a couple days & if in 48 hours she is not eating better, call the doctor.

If your daughter is otherwise healthy, active and appears to be like any other 6 year old don't worry about it. Kids will eat when they need eat - just like a car, it lets you know when it's low on gas.

My daughter goes through phases, which started around 5, of eating until I thought she was going to explode and then hardly eating anything. I connected these phases to growth spurts - she would eat and eat when her body was trying to grow and needed the extra fuel and then after the growth spurt her eating patterns would return to normal.

Keep an eye on her but don't worry about it. If you begin worrying about her eating habits now you only help her form unhealthy eating habits as she gets older.

Hi F.,
Summer months can do wierd things to appitetes....just keep offering her fruit, juices and what ever she will eat. She could be a little constiaped.....Just don;t make a big issue of it to her- just watch her for any other sort of infection that could be ruining her appitite....like kidney etc- as long as she is happy, plays well and is sleeping I would say it is just a phase- but bears watching.
good luck and blessings