Chapter excerpt from Our Children Are...What Our Children Eat
1.    If the child is on medication, especially a stimulant medication that causes suppression of the appetite, wait until his or her appetite returns, when the toxic effect has worn off.  Give him eat a snack with the family at mealtime and a full meal later.  Honor the body.

2.    Eliminate the cause:  If the medication is known to suppress the appetite, ask the doctor to switch to another medication (for ADHD, for example) that doesn’t cause appetite suppression. 

3.    Make the food pretty and colorful.

4.    Make it a liquid meal --- a smoothie or a sweet fresh squeezed fruit juice with carrot and celery added. (Taste is undetectable.)     Call it a milkshake.  Kids relate better to that.  (So do adults!)

5.    Consider “trickle feeding” (Thank you, Dr. John Taylor.)  Use the Protein Snack list in this manual.

6.    Get the child involved in the meal planning and food preparation.

7.    Eliminate milk, soda, and juice.  These are really foods and they are filling!  Use water and herb teas.  (Herb iced tea sweetened with stevia tastes great!)*

8.    Investigate whether the sense of taste or smell are decreased or lost, thus contributing to poor appetite.  Some medications can cause this, as well as nutrient deficiencies of B12 or zinc.  There is a great zinc taste test that can be done with a special zinc liquid, which tastes like water if you are deficient.  If you’re not, it will taste horrible!  Many kids, especially those with ADHD have zinc deficiencies.  (Call 1-800-608-5602 for this special zinc taste test.)

9.    If the child is constantly battling congestion (sinus or nasal), the sense of taste or smell may become distorted or lost.  When chronic congestion is cleared up by eliminating allergy foods and improving immune function, the sense of taste or smell is often restored and the appetite returns.

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