Is Your Child a Selective Eater? Here’s How to Know and Help!

Published on

August 6, 2024

Nutrition

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Picky, or selective eating is a common challenge for many parents, and understanding the different types of picky eating behaviours can help you develop more effective strategies to encourage healthy eating habits.

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Here's a guide to identifying whether your child is a picky eater and some practical tips on how to help them embrace a more varied diet.

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Types of Picky Eating

The following are some of the most common types of selective eating:

Type	Description
Neophobia	Fear of new foods. This is evolutionarily protective and usually diminishes with repeated exposure.
Fussy/Picky Eating	Involves rejection of both familiar and unfamiliar foods. May include specific restrictions like avoiding vegetables, needing different meal preparations, or causing disruptions in daily routines.
Food Jags	When a child insists on eating only one type of food or a very limited variety, meal after meal. The best approach is repeated exposure without pressure.
Extreme Picky Eating/Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder	More severe forms involving disrupted eating patterns due to lack of interest in food or avoidance based on sensory qualities or fear of consequences, leading to nutritional deficiencies.

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How to Know if Your Child is a Selective Eater

Understanding whether your child's eating habits are just typical selectiveness or a sign of more serious issues can be challenging. Consider the following environmental and behavioural factors to assess feeding difficulties:

Environmental	Behavioural
Prolonged mealtimes Meals take significantly longer than typical, indicating difficulty or reluctance in eating.	Food fixation (selective, extreme dietary limitations) Strict avoidance or preference for specific foods, severely limiting diet variety.
Food refusal after more than 1 month Consistent refusal to eat certain foods or meals lasting more than a month.	Noxious (forceful and/or persecutory) feeding Forceful feeding practices that cause distress or discomfort.
Disruptive/stressful mealtimes Meals are regularly fraught with stress or disruptions, affecting eating behavior.	Abrupt cessation of feeding after a trigger event Sudden refusal to eat following specific incidents, which may relate to trauma or fear.
Lack of appropriate independent feeding Difficulty or inability to feed themselves appropriately for their age.	Anticipatory gagging Gagging at the sight, smell, or idea of food before eating begins, often due to sensory processing issues.
Distraction to increase intake (books, TV, toys) Reliance on distractions to encourage eating, which can undermine natural hunger cues and food acceptance.
Prolonged breast or bottle-feeding Continuing to breastfeed or bottle-feed longer than typical for their developmental stage, which may impede the transition to solid foods.
Failure to advance textures Difficulty transitioning from pureed to more solid foods, which can affect nutritional intake and development.

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General Feeding Guidelines

Consider these feeding guidelines to foster healthy eating habits and make feeding times smoother and more enjoyable for both you and your child:

General Feeding Guidelines	Details
Avoid distractions during mealtimes	Keep away from television, cell phones, etc.
Maintain a pleasant neutral attitude throughout the meal	Ensure the meal environment is calm and positive.
Feed to encourage appetite	Limit meal duration to 20-30 minutes and offer 4-6 meals/snacks a day with only water in between.
Serve age-appropriate foods	Choose foods suitable for the child's age.
Systematically introduce new foods	Introduce new foods up to 8-15 times to increase acceptance.
Encourage self-feeding	Allow children to feed themselves to promote independence.
Tolerate age-appropriate mess	Accept some mess as part of the learning process during feeding.

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Selective Eating: Best Practices

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Navigating the world of picky eaters can be a challenge! Here are 8 ways to help you ease your child's selective eating habits:

1. Consistency and Patience:

It might take 8-10 tries for a child to accept a new food. Taste buds can take over two weeks to adapt, so persistence is key.

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2. Model Positive Behaviour

Children often emulate their parents. Studies, such as one in Belgium, have shown that parental behaviour significantly influences children's eating habits.

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3. Pair New Foods with Safe Foods

Introduce new items slowly, pairing them with familiar "safe" foods. Gradually increase the ratio of new foods on the plate as your child becomes more comfortable.

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4. Engage Your Child in Food Selection and Preparation

Involvement in grocery shopping and meal preparation can make new foods less intimidating. This hands-on experience engages all senses and can foster a positive attitude towards trying new things.

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5. Modify Strong Flavours

Softening strong flavours with sauces, spices, or cooking methods like roasting can make new foods more palatable. For instance, broccoli with ranch dip might be more appealing than plain steamed broccoli.

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6. Avoid Excessive Intake of Beverages

Drinking too much milk or juice can diminish a child’s appetite for solid foods. Limiting these can help maintain an appetite for meals.

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7. Reduce Distractions During Meals

Avoid toys, books, or television at meal times to keep your child focused on eating.

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8. Nutrient-Dense Additions for Growth

For children with faltering growth, include calorie and fat-rich foods like nuts, seeds, plant-based yogurt and cheese, avocado, and coconut milk to boost caloric intake.

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Takeaway

Navigating selective (picky) eating requires patience, creativity, and sometimes a bit of strategy. With these tips, you can help your child develop healthier eating patterns and a more adventurous palate.

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