Overcoming Picky Eating Habits in Children
Is your child turning mealtimes into a battleground?
Picky eating is a common behavior in young children that can cause stress for parents and negatively impact family relationships. While this phase can be challenging, it typically resolves with minimal intervention as children grow and explore new foods. Picky eating often involves rejecting or restricting both familiar and unfamiliar foods, sometimes including an element of neophobia – a fear of trying new things.
Causes of Picky Eating
There are several reasons why children might become picky eaters:
Sensitivity to taste, smell, and texture
Some children are naturally more sensitive to sensory experiences, which can make certain foods overwhelming or unpleasant for them. For example, a child might refuse to eat mushy vegetables like cooked carrots because the texture feels strange or unappealing in their mouth.
Modeling behavior
Children often mimic the eating habits they observe in their parents or caregivers. If a parent is a fussy eater or expresses strong dislikes for certain foods, a child may learn to adopt similar behaviors.
Parental responses
Picky eating can also develop when parents use food as a means of control, such as by punishing, bribing, or rewarding eating behaviors. For example, offering dessert as a reward for eating vegetables can reinforce the idea that vegetables are something undesirable.
Strategies for Overcoming Picky Eating
Share responsibility
As a parent, you control what, where, and when food is provided. Your child’s role is to decide whether to eat and how much to eat. This division of responsibility helps children feel more in control, reducing the power struggle over meals. For example, you might serve a meal with a variety of options, allowing your child to choose what they feel comfortable eating from what is offered.
Offer a variety of age-appropriate foods
At mealtime, provide a balanced selection that includes a vegetable, fruit, protein, and starch. Encourage your child to try different foods, but do not pressure them. Research shows that it can take up to 15 exposures before a child might try a new food. For instance, keep offering broccoli on their plate even if they don’t eat it initially, showing them that it is a normal part of meals.
Limit high-calorie drinks
Excessive consumption of juice, soda, or milk can fill children up, leaving little room for nutritious foods. It is best to limit juice to 4 ounces a day and milk to 24 ounces. Soda, with no nutritional benefit, should be avoided entirely. This helps children feel hunger at meal and snack times, making them more likely to eat the nutritious foods you provide.
Set a meal schedule
Consistent meal and snack times help children understand that food is available regularly, reducing anxiety about going hungry. For example, serving breakfast, a morning snack, lunch, an afternoon snack, and dinner helps maintain a predictable routine, making it easier for children to come to the table feeling ready to eat.
Make meals pleasant
The dining environment plays a significant role in a child’s willingness to eat. Create a calm, inviting atmosphere with pleasant conversation, a clean and bright eating space, and minimal distractions like television or toys. This encourages children to focus on their food and enjoy the social aspect of meals.
Respect eating quirks
Each child has unique preferences and may react differently to the same foods on different days. If your child suddenly dislikes a previously favored food, acknowledge it without making a fuss. Over time, children’s tastes can change, and they may return to foods they once rejected.
Avoid being a short-order cook
If your child refuses to eat what you have prepared, resist the temptation to make a separate meal just for them. This can reinforce picky eating habits. Instead, offer at least one food you know they like along with the meal. This approach balances providing choice with encouraging the acceptance of a broader range of foods.
Don’t always offer dessert
Offering dessert only occasionally and not as a daily routine prevents children from seeing sweets as a necessary part of every meal. When dessert is available, avoid making it conditional on finishing all the food on their plate. This prevents children from overeating just to get to the dessert, promoting healthier eating habits.
When to Seek Professional Help
While picky eating is usually a normal developmental phase, it can sometimes become problematic if it leads to poor nutrition or affects a child’s health and daily functioning. In such cases, it is important to explore the underlying reasons, which could include sensory sensitivities, anxiety, or fear of trying new foods. Consulting a pediatrician, nutritionist, or child psychologist can provide valuable insights and strategies. These professionals may use techniques like food therapy to gradually introduce new foods in a controlled, supportive environment.
Conclusion
Picky eating is a common phase that most children outgrow with minimal intervention. By offering a variety of healthy foods, maintaining a consistent meal schedule, creating a positive mealtime environment, and avoiding punitive or reward-based approaches to eating, parents can help their children develop healthy, balanced eating habits. However, if picky eating becomes severe enough to affect a child’s health or daily life, seeking professional guidance from a therapist or nutritionist can be beneficial in helping the child overcome their aversions and embrace a more varied diet.