You might be spending hours during meal time forcing your child to eat. We understand how this can be very frustrating. Instead of getting motivated to eat, he/she just stares at the food, whining and when forced; forcefully closing their lips shut. Rest assured that this ordeal is frustrating for your child as much as it is for you. Now, how can we make this ordeal a little more comfortable for your child and yourself?
Background Information
Between the age of 2 to about the age of 6 is when children are the pickiest. This pickiness usually declines by the age of 6 for most children, but for some, it continues into adulthood. We have seen all the tricks that parents use to get their children to eat. Like the overused flying airplane spoon that parents hope would just land in the child’s open mouth. Others make sounds that hopefully encourages the child to open their mouth like ‘mmmm yummy’. By the age of 3, these tricks will no longer be effective; your child knows your tricks. Your misrepresentation and tricks will be ineffective. He or she by 3 knows better than that. Understanding why children are picky is crucial.
Children are picky for evolutionary and survival reasons. Pickiness prevents them from eating poisonous things or inedible items like sand. What’s tormenting for parents is that once the child gets comfortable with only eating certain foods; it is extremely hard to change and this might be true to an extend. This means that picky 3-year-old become picky adults. You might be wondering ‘how do we resolve this problem or even prevent my child from being a picky eater?’.
Nutritionists and Dietitians say that exposing your child to new foods over and over is really the key to getting them to overcome this pickiness. Parents need to expose children to real wholesome foods in order to prevent unhealthy eating habits. Keep in mind that it takes about 20 times of trying something new for the child to like the food. Exposure to a variety of foods over a long period of time is key from a young age.
That being said, let’s be real here; some children will still refuse certain foods that they are familiar with. Why? Simply because they just don’t like it. There are certain foods that we all like and don’t like; that is normal. A dislike to a certain food might be due to a gene called “TASR38”, which codes for bitter taste receptors? This is a variant that is in gene expression and it determines how sensitive we are to certain levels of bitterness. There is an entire group of genes that determine each person’s taste preferences, which is a whole entire blog post altogether.
The key point is that if your child does not like a certain vegetable doesn’t fuss over it. Look at another healthy food item that has the same nutritional benefits that your child likes and replace it with that. If your adamant that your child must eat this specific food, then try blending it into the foods that your child already loves. A lot of foods can be blended into sauces for instance. We suggested to Amy (A parent we worked with) to pureed broccoli and added it to tomato sauces for pasta. And since her daughter Sarah loved coconut, Amy would add coconut shreds to the tomato sauce to hide the taste of the vegetables. And this little trick worked for 3 years old Sarah. Keep in mind that most children grow out of the picky eater stage but unfortunately some don’t. Recently we got updated that Sarah now eats steamed broccoli’s just fine.
Small gradual changes and exposure are key. Your child might grow to love the food they hate now over time with exposure. And if they don’t like that food, then it is okay as long as they are getting the nutrition they need from other healthy sources. In another blog post, we will be addressing how to help children who don’t like to eat most foods or those that have already gotten used to eating only a few types of food.