It’s normal for children to be picky about certain foods. However, ‘picky eating’ develops when a young person’s unwillingness to eat familiar foods or try new ones interferes with daily family routines, affecting parents, children, or both.
Some types of picky eating can harm a young person’s development. Picky eating may also be a symptom of underlying mental health concerns that require attention and support.
It can be tempting for parents to understand picky eating as a defiant or oppositional behaviour. But this is rarely the case. Approaching picky eating as a form of non-compliance can ultimately make a child even more selective.
When Is Pickiness ‘Normal’?
In their early years, infants grow very fast. Growth peaks around the age of two, before gradually slowing down between the ages of two and five years old. As growth slows, it’s normal for pre-school children to experience a decrease in appetite, feeling less hungry than they did before.
It’s also very normal for young children to initially reject new foods or go through short periods when they restrict the types of food they eat. There’s even evidence to suggest that, from an evolutionary point of view, it makes sense for children to initially avoid a new food until they are sure it’s not poisonous. However, research suggests that, with time and repeated exposure, most children will come to accept new foods.
As they physically change, children also undergo psychological changes. Young children begin to develop self-autonomy, prefer to feed themselves, and have a say in what foods they eat and don’t eat. This might include refusing foods that don’t seem inviting to them.
Sometimes, parents see normal behaviours, such as initially refusing new foods, as ‘picky’. They may interpret their child’s behaviour as ‘disobedient’ or deliberately noncompliant. Unfortunately, unrealistic parental expectations about their child’s eating, combined with attempts to pressure or persuade their children to eat certain foods, may make young people even more resistant.
When Does Pickiness Become a Problem?
However, while some food selectiveness is normal for children, more severe pickiness can start to harm their everyday life and well-being. Picky eating is a problem when it harms a child’s well-being or seriously limits their everyday life. This can happen when a child is unable to obtain the necessary nutrients from the foods they eat, or because they consume too little food to be properly nourished.
Children with picky eating may:
- eat small meals
- eat slowly
- lack of interest in food
- only want to eat a limited number of foods,
- be reluctant to try new foods
- have strong food preferences
Picky eating, especially at a clinical level, can affect many aspects of a young person’s life, both in the short- and long-term. It may lead to:
- low intake of specific essential nutrients, such as iron and zinc
- low dietary fibre, affecting digestion
- low body weight
- emotional and social challenges
- eating disorders in later childhood or adolescence
What Is ARFID?
Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is a type of eating disorder. Young people with ARFID avoid certain foods or types of foods or restrict their eating in general. Food restriction among people with ARFID isn’t related to concerns about body shape and weight, but to other reasons like anxiety or sensory sensitivity.
ARFID may be diagnosed when a person’s restrictive eating prevents them from receiving the energy or nutrients they require to stay healthy and well.
What Causes Picky Eating?
There are many different reasons why picky eating can develop. Some children may experience more than one of these causes. These may include:
Anxiety or Fear of Food
Some children may have had a distressing experience surrounding food, such as choking, vomiting, or severe abdominal pain. This may feel worried or afraid of eating food and having the same experience. Children may also share these anxieties without having these experiences themselves, but because they’ve seen or heard about them among other people.
Children may also have general anxieties around food that they find hard to conceptualise or describe.
Sometimes, anxiety or fear of food can be connected to underlying anxiety disorders or traits, such as general anxiety disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder. In these cases, it’s essential to seek support that addresses both underlying issues and more specific eating behaviours.
Sensory-Based Avoidance
Some children are susceptible to the smell, texture, appearance, feel, or taste of foods. They may find it very distressing to eat foods with a particular texture or that look a certain way.
Research shows that children with higher sensory sensitivity are more likely to develop picky eating.
Parent Modelling and Parent-Child Interactions
Children’s behaviours are deeply affected by their parents’. They observe, copy, and internalise their parents’ habits, attitudes, and preferences. This means that parents’ eating behaviours have a significant impact on their children’s. Unsurprisingly, children of parents with healthy eating behaviours, who eat a balanced, wide range of foods, are less likely to be picky eaters.
Picky eating is also affected by parent-child interactions and parenting approaches to food. Parenting styles that aim to teach children while acknowledging their autonomy can help protect against picky eating behaviours. On the other hand, pressuring a child to eat can increase the likelihood of pickiness.
What Is the Link Between Picky Eating and Autism?
It’s normal for both autistic and non-autistic children to go through phases of picky eating. But research suggests that autistic children are more likely than children who are not autistic to experience persistent avoidant eating and to eat a narrower range of food.
Autistic young people are more likely than others to experience heightened sensory sensitivity or process sensory experiences differently. They also often experience anxiety about trying new things or changing routines. Each of these traits can increase the likelihood of picky eating.
Supporting Children with Picky Eating
When children’s picky eating starts to limit their daily lives and well-being, it’s essential to seek support. Mental health professionals can work with children to identify the causes of picky eating and develop ways to overcome food avoidance and selectivity. They can also work with parents and families to adapt and learn parenting approaches that encourage children to eat a broader range of foods.
Treatment for picky eating begins by identifying the reasons why a child is avoiding a food. It might be because of a specific fear or anxiety, such as choking or being unhealthy. Therapists may then work with a young person to deconstruct and overcome this fear by explaining why, for example, new foods are not dangerous, or dispelling myths about food ‘going down the wrong way’.
Therapists also often use exposure therapy to introduce new foods to patients. This involves gradually encountering foods they have been avoiding in a safe and controlled way. It might begin with just seeing a food on a table, touching it, or smelling it. As they become more accustomed to the food, they can gradually incorporate it into their daily diet.
At the same time, parenting interventions may support parents to reduce their child’s pickiness. This might involve learning to repeatedly offer a child new foods, without pressuring them to eat them and while acknowledging their autonomy. It may also include learning to model healthy eating habits themselves.
The Wave Clinic: Specialist Recovery Programs for Young People
The Wave Clinic provides specialised mental health support for children, young people, and their families. Our residential and outpatient programs offer a diverse selection of treatment modalities, designed and delivered by experts in child and adolescent psychiatry.
Our programs are family-centred and trauma-focused, sensitively addressing the past experiences that shape our behaviours today.
If you’re interested in finding out more about our programs, get in touch today.
