In a message dated 8/20/1999 3:56:04 PM Eastern Daylight Time, writes: > In my experience - in the absence of organic disease - poor appetite > (which may or may not lead to poor weight gain) is almost always behavioral > (food battles with parents) or due to other poor eating habits (drinking > massive amounts of milk and/or juice, etc.). Good advice. The other reason for complaints about appetite is unreasonable parental expectations about what kids should eat. I see lots of perfectly normal kids whose parents ask for something to stimulate their appetite. I tell them that kids' appetites vary quite a lot, and some days they may not eat much, but the next day they'll usually make up for it. As long as they are growing normally, aren't always sick, and have enough energy to run around and do all the things kids should do, they're probably ok. Give them healthy meals and snacks--avoid large quantities of junk foods and sodas, and they will usually be fine. Throwing out the bottles and cutting down on milk really will help a lot of kids--you'd be surprised how long some children still use bottles. I ask at each check-up until I get a negative answer--don't assume they've stopped just because you told them to stop at the 12 month check-up. Moshe Adler, MD