"Doctor, the child does not eat": a motive for consultation
Fernández Núñez, J.M.; Sendín González, C.; Paulino Herrera, A.; Pérez Gómez, P.; Lozano Izquierdo, C.
Atencion Primaria 20(10): 554-556
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0212-6567 PMID: 9494215 Document Number: 475867
To find the incidence of "Doctor, the child's not eating" as a motive for requesting a consultation and to check whether there is an accompanying pathology and/or poor nutritional habits. Descriptive, crossover study. Rural Health Centre, Santa Amalia (Badajoz). Family members with 148 children, attending on their own initiative and seeking care for "he/she's not eating" between August and October 1996. 148 of 1,244 consultations were for "he/she not eating" (incidence 11.89%). 52.02% of them were male. The age group which attended most was from 1 to 4 years old (48.64%), followed by 36 cases between 7 and 12 months (24.32%). We observed an accompanying pathology in 71 (41.98%), most frequently catarrh of the upper passages and urinary tract infection. The fact that one of every 12 consultations was because a child had lost his/her appetite had two main interpretations: it is a common occurrence which worries parents quite a lot; and many parents lack information about feeding their children, as to quantity and the ways of administering the food.