How to Parent a Picky Eater

Parents face many challenges. Few are more frustrating than trying to get kids to eat properly, and we’re not talking about etiquette at the dinner table. Many kids just have very particular eating habits that are not conducive to a well-rounded diet.

While many well-adjusted and pragmatic parents may just think, well, it’s something they will grow out of. It’s just kids being kids. But the issue might present some immediate health risks, according to a new *study from Duke Medicine.

According to the study, more than 20 percent of kids between two and six years old are what they deemed “selective eaters.” About 18 percent of them were considered moderately picky and about 3 percent “severely selective.”

“The question for many parents and physicians is: when is picky eating truly a problem?” said lead author Nancy Zucker, director of the Duke Center for Eating Disorders. “The children we’re talking about are not just misbehaving kids who refuse to eat their broccoli.”

Moderately picky eaters were are defined as children whose actions affected at least two defined areas, such as making mealtimes at home or school a challenge. Severely selective eaters’ actions made it difficult to even eat around other people.

Children in both picky eating categories showed symptoms of depression, social and generalized anxiety.

“There’s no question that not all children go on to have chronic selective eating in adulthood,” said Zucker. “But because these children are seeing impairment in their health and well-being now, we need to start developing ways to help these parents and doctors know when and how to intervene.”

Most picky eating in children is completely natural. There are various reasons a child may not want to eat the foods they should be eating. For one, humans are predisposed to prefer sweet and salty foods. Since healthy foods are often not either of those, your child may reject them.

Kids’ palates are a clean slate. As such, they haven’t developed a taste for foods that don’t fit into the very basic tastes we are born to crave. Studies have shown that it can take being exposed to a food at least 10 times before a child will start to develop a taste for it, according to Dr. Laura Jana, director of innovation at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

“I don’t want people to think it’s a foregone conclusion that if your child is a picky eater that they’re going to be anxious or depressed,” said Dr. Jana.

But…

“We do now know that what happens very early actually does have potential lifelong implications on willingness to try new foods and eating,” she said.

While significant picky eating may require a visit with a healthcare professional for advice, most parents can use a few basic strategies to improve their child’s nutritional habits.

Start by looking inward.

While it’s your child you are trying to change, you may need to change how you think about the situation first. When you know that most picky eating is a reaction to the developmental stage they are currently in, it should help you develop more patience when they push back the foods you want them to eat. Yelling about it does nobody any good. It will take both patience and persistence to get your kids on the right track.

Look for small victories.

Since it takes repeated exposure to certain foods before developing a taste for them, ask your child to at least take a bite. Same goes for new foods they might be wary of. This repeated exposure should help them gradually develop a taste, and if you praise them for their actions, they just may grow into an open-minded eater.

Experiment.

If you’re not a particularly adventurous eater, you may need to go out of your comfort zone for the sake of your child. The more foods you bring to the table, the better chance you will find something your child likes.

*published August 3, 2015, in the journal Pediatrics.

About the Author:

Pediatric Cardiology Center of Oregon has been caring for children and adults with congenital heart disease in the Pacific Northwest since 1986. Our pediatric heart program has pioneered many important advances in the treatment of congenital heart disease, including the first Norwood surgical procedure for hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) in Oregon, as well as the first arterial switch operation for transposition of the great arteries (TGA) 

How to Parent a Picky Eater