Dealing with picky eating can feel like a long and tortuous journey for parents. Parents need a lot of patience for this particular phase of a child´s development. It is no picnic, that is for sure. Personally, I feel it is always helpful to know why children behave a certain way with food. It can be really eye-opening and even calm down some stressed parents.
Why do children start rejecting food?
Part of it is related to what scientists call “food neophobia”. Food neophobia is the rejection of new or unknown foods. It is, actually, linked to human evolution. This trait protects your child from ingesting potentially harmful foods. Of course, many of the foods rejected are actually good for our health, so why is your child rejecting them? Let´s use vegetables as an example. Vegetables are one of the most commonly rejected foods by children (and, let´s be honest, also by some adults). Most vegetables taste bitter; and so do a lot of poisonous substances found in nature. The natural evolutionary mechanism is then to avoid ingesting any food that could be potentially poisonous. Food neophobia is “helping” your child “survive” by making him/her reject a food that, for all (s)he knows, is most likely poisonous. Your child will also reject similar looking foods (for him/her, chances are high that they are poisonous as well). Learning this, you can understand why it is important that your child sees you eating and enjoying the rejected food. (S)he will see it is safe and that it is pleasant. Positive experiences with the food help stop its rejection. Likewise, negative experiences with the food can exacerbate its rejection. A negative experience does not necessarily need to be related to something physiological like puking or getting stomach pain. A lot can be connected with emotion. Being force-fed the rejected food or seeing the parent angry/frustrated can make the food experience unpleasant as well. Your child will make the link that something bad happens whenever (s)he sees that food.
It may take more than 1 time for your child to dare to try the rejected food (experts estimate it may take up to 15 times). The older your child is, the longer it may take. Sometimes just seeing the rejected food set at the table (and the family eating it) is more than enough. As I said, it’s a long process so…hang in there mamas and papas. Picking the food up, giving it one lick or a small bite can already be a huge accomplishment!
Sometimes, the food rejected is a food your child was already familiar with. What is going on in these cases? Children, particularly toddlers, prefer foods that are easy to identify. The rejection could be because the food is presented in another way. The presentation is what is new. It could be how it looks (e.g. it is cut differently) or how it feels (it is hard/raw when they are used to a soft texture of the cooked food). Again, exposure is key (though it might take longer in case of familiar foods).
Could there be other forces at play when it comes to picky eating? Yes, another factor that may play a role in picky eating is how sensitive the child is to sensory cues (e.g. the smell, taste, texture or the sight of something). Children that are sensitive to sensory cues not only notice them more but they also have stronger reactions to them. To name an example, a child that dislikes the feel of the fabric of his/her clothes or dislikes touching grass, dirt and sand may possibly be more sensitive to different textures in his/her mouth. As a result, (s)he may dislike and reject more foods.
Is it cause for worry?
By now you can already guess that if you have a picky eater…you are not alone in your struggle. Parents often worry that their children are not getting enough food; but parents are usually thinking in adult portion sizes. Children usually eat less. To name an example, while a good chicken portion for an adult would be 100 gr, for children (aged 1-3 years old) it would be 50 gr. Likewise, while 4 scoops of vegetables (200-500 gr) is a good vegetable portion for an adult; for children 1-2 scoops (50-100 gr) is more than enough. There is also the worry of children not growing enough or not gaining enough weight. Toddlers do not grow/gain weight as fast as babies. While babies gain three times their weight during infancy and increase their length by 50%, once they turn 1 things begin to slow down. During their second year, they grow and average of 12 cm and gain 2-3 kg. From 2 years of age onwards, they grow 6-8 cm per year and gain 2kg. This stays this way until the growth spurt of puberty arrives. If you are worried that your child is not gaining weight/growing as fast as (s)he used to, check first if it falls within the range of what is normal for a child of that age. This can be checked at the consultatiebureau (if you are in the Netherlands) or by your paediatrician (for countries such as Mexico), where they check their weight and height and compare them to growth charts (those charts with curves you may be already familiar with). A final worry is that, by neglecting a specific food, the child might not be getting all nutrients. While picky eaters may not eat a wide variety of foods (and, as a result, they have a different consumption of nutrients than non-picky eaters) their calorie, carbohydrate, protein and fat intake are not compromised. Regarding what we call micronutrients (e.g. vitamins), actually both picky and non-picky eaters end up sometimes consuming less than is recommended of certain micronutrients (which points to a lack of variety/nutrient-rich foods in the diets of both types of children and not only picky eaters). Most dietitians/nutritionists will work with trying a combination of different foods in your child´s diet to reach and adequate nutrient intake (think of it this way…not only oranges contain vitamin C!). To summarize, as long as your child is healthy and growing and developing as it is expected for a child of his or her age, there is usually nothing to worry about. If your child starts showing signs that there is something amiss, then contact your healthcare provider.
I hope I managed to calm you a little regarding this topic. My recommendation for this phase: gather as much patience as you can, don´t stop trying (remember, exposure is key!) and always try to make eating a pleasurable moment for your child!
Luz
PS: Wanna know more? We will offer a course in 2021 in which we discuss in more detail this topic. Stay tuned!
Comments