Eating issues are some of the most common problems reported by parents of newly arrived children. I wrote before how to tempt the reluctant eater. But equally common is the child who can't seem to get enough to eat. Just how much is too much?


A helpful article at OlderChildAdoption.com has this to say about the challenges many older-adopted children face:

Second helpings, food served family style, grocery stores, pantries, refrigerators, bowls of fruit or candy just sitting around – all of this is new to them.

Children may gorge themselves because they’ve never had the opportunity to. Some will even make themselves sick by overeating. They may fixate on certain foods. It may be best to avoid serving meals family-style at first. But, don’t worry too much about a child who eats huge quantities of bananas, hot dogs, or other new favorites. With time, they will usually settle down to normal portions.

Hoarding food or other items may occur because children don’t believe that the food will continue to be plentiful, or because they have had very few private possessions. As insecurities decrease over time, so should these behaviors.

The overeating the new kids do early on can sometimes cause diarrhea, according to this article at adoption.com. The article goes on to say:

One must remember that food for these children was scarce in the orphanage. When it was available, it did no look or taste very good. Now with the availability of good tasting food, children just cannot control themselves and they fear that it may not be available tomorrow in their little minds, so they just eat.

Experts say that the best way to handle this over-eating in most cases is to offer plenty of healthy food frequently. Eventually as your child gets caught up nutrition-wise, his appetite will likely become more normal, though don't be too surprised if this takes several months.

Keep in mind that eating issues can sometimes be related to the child's attachment status. Often when the child becomes well attached, his eating issues diminish. So be relaxed, give your child some time, work hard on attachment, and gradually the eating issues should go away.


Related Posts:
Jump-Starting Attachment
Other Causes Of Diarrhea: Our Battle With Giardia
New Kids: What To Feed Them