What Causes Picky Eating
One of my friends, she is a mother of 3 kids (7, 5 and 2 1/2 now). The first two are easy eaters. Even when they were toddlers, whatever she’d put in front of them on the table, they’d finish the plate off and ask her whether they could have some more. But for the third little one, she simply rejects everything. Why some children are so easy and others are so picky?
It’s very common for a toddler to go through a finicky eating stage. But if you are the parent of a toddler, you will have concerns when your little one only sticks to potato chips with ketchup or a little bit of macaroni with cheese for an entire day. Wonder what are the causes.
Over the past two days I surfed on the internet and dived into the info, trying to find the answers. There are a number of different reasons that a child, especially a toddler, can become a picky eater.
Here are the five common causes that I’ve found:
1. Slower growth rate. At 1- to 3- olds tend to grow more slowly compared to other stages of development. Their appetite would vary from time to time as well. The stomach of a toddler is small and only need a few food to fill up.
2. Need more time. Some children just need more time to get used to the various textures, colors and tastes of new food. Study shows that most children will try a new food after being offered it 10-15 times.
3. Mood Swing. Toddlers are easily influenced by emotions and moods. They might eat well one day and the other day eat nothing. They don’t make decisions like adults based on reasoning. Most adults would go for some healthy foods even though they don’t like them very much. But the word of “health” doesn’t make any sense for children. So reasoning or cajoling won’t work for toddlers. Fortunately, there are other ways to solve the problem of picky eating.(I talk about it later on.)
4. Picky eaters may be born that way. New research cited in The Yale Guide to Children’s Nutrition (Yale University Press) edited by William V. Tamborlane, M.D., suggests:
Picky eaters may be born that way: the ability to taste sweetness and bitterness may be genetically related to the number of taste buds on a person’s tongue. The so-called genetic supertaster, for example, may have as many as 1,100 taste buds per square centimeter of tongue, while a more accepting eater may have as few as 11 taste buds in the same-size area.
Based on this understanding, I can tell why my daughter is more picky than my son. She can tell what ingredients and herbs I put in a plate just by tasting the first bit. But for my son, every kind of food is the same to him. His job is to finish the plate.
5. Parental influence. An article posted by University of California states that “other children develop picky eating habits by modeling after their parents’ fussy eating habits.” Picky eating habits are more likely to develop when parents punish, bribe or reward their children’s eating behaviors.
Related posts:
10 Healthy Foods for Finicky Toddlers
Solving Your Child’s Eating Problems
How do Parents Train their Toddlers to Eat Healthy Food
Toddlers’ Favorite Foods Around the World
MedlinePlus - Age-appropriate Diet for Children
Recipes for Kids at Different Ages
April 3rd, 2006 at 6:01 am
Thanks for this. I just put an entry on my blog last week about the fussy eating habits of my young daughter and how we had tried to encourage her to eat.
Most websites and advice pages say the same old thing over and over, this article has offered me some new information. When I get a minute I will amend my post on my family blog and add a link to this article.
Thanks for the tips!