Fussy eaters can be a pain for parents, provoking mealtime meltdowns as they refuse to explore beyond a limited number of foods, or foods prepared in a specific way. This can come to dictate what you prepare for meals, and more worryingly, limit the nutrients, vitamins and minerals they consume.
“In most cases, however, there’s no need to panic – unless they reject an entire food group, they will usually still get enough nutrients to grow and develop,” says registered dietitian Nazeeia Sayed, a spokesperson for the Association for Dietetics in South Africa. And it’s also usually just a passing phase. In a study in the journal Appetite, 39% of children who participated were identified as picky eaters at some stage, and their pickiest phase was from age two, declining by age six.
Why are children fussy eaters?
The reasons for pickiness are still unclear, but a study by the University of Bedfordshire in the UK, which specialises in children’s eating behaviour, found genetics may play a small part. Some children also have ‘heightened sensory sensitivity’, which makes the textures they feel in their mouths especially important – they’re generally inclined to prefer smooth, fatty foods like yoghurts, soft biscuits and, unfortunately, many junk foods.
Most pickiness, however, comes from personal taste preferences, and these begin in utero and with your breast milk – so the more variety in your diet when you’re pregnant and breastfeeding, the more likely your child is to accept those foods later.
4 steps for dealing with a fussy eater
1. Keep calm: Pressuring a child to eat will make the situation worse. Offer a variety of healthy foods at each meal, including something they like, and encourage them to try at least a taste of each. “Sometimes just a change in texture or temperature might encourage the child to try the food,” says Sayed. Reward them with praise, and if need be, stickers.
2. Be patient: It can take 15 tries for a food to become familiar enough to a child’s taste buds to be enjoyed, according to University of Bedfordshire researchers.
3. Be a good role model: If children see you eating and enjoying a variety of foods, they’re more likely to try them.
4. Try food chaining: This is a method of introducing children to new foods by building on gradually from those they like. It was developed by dietitian Cheri Fraker and outlined in her book Food Chaining: The Proven 6-Step Plan to Stop Picky Eating, Solve Feeding Problems and Expand Your Child’s Diet.
Begin by identifying the characteristics of the food your fussy eater enjoys – its texture, shape, flavour and smell. Then offer foods with similar characteristics. So if they enjoy a soft food like yoghurt, offer purées of similar consistency and flavour, such as banana, then try just mashing the banana, and move on to soups of similar texture or colour, using the likes of cauliflower or butternut, then other veggies.
Other food chain examples to try:
- Fast-food French fries to homemade French fries to sweet potato fries to potato wedges to baked potato and mash.
- Buttered pasta to pasta in cream sauce, to wholegrain pasta in cream sauce flavoured with tomato sauce, to wholegrain pasta with chunky tomato sauce.
- Rice with very smooth and thin cooked lentils (for example, pea dhal), to rice with small brown lentils or mung beans, to rice with chickpeas or beans.
- Very finely minced meat to chunkier mince to meatballs, and then to meat chunks and to meat on the bone.
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