Fussy eating is a well known feeding concern for parents, causing a lot of worry about nutritional needs not being met.
Everyone wants a baby who is happy to try all sorts of
different foods and who grows into a toddler who settles into
eating family food. But fussy eating is a well known feeding
concern for parents, causing a lot of worry about nutritional needs
not being met. Here we explore how infants develop their appetite
and food preferences and how you can encourage healthy feeding
practices early on in their life.
Why do we eat?
As adults, what we eat and how much depends on 2 types of
triggers:
- An instinctive or 'true' hunger that indicates that we should
eat to fuel our bodies for daily activity and literally to keep
ourselves alive;
- External triggers such as boredom, sadness or others eating at
the same time. For example, do you tend to snack on sweet foods
when you feel bored or upset?
Until the age of about 5, an infant only experiences the first
type of trigger, i.e. they only eat when they are truly hungry and
in need of food to fuel their growth and development.
Babies' food preferences
Babies are born with a preference for sweet, high fat foods,
like breast milk for example, as these are the type of foods that
provide lots of energy for growth. They also have a slight dislike
of bitter foods, such as green vegetables, as a bitter taste is
associated with mouldy or poisonous foods.
However, in the first stages of weaning, most babies will be
fairly receptive to all types of foods. Where they don't seem to
like a food at first, like broccoli for example, just try again and
in a few days, they may quite happily eat it. Offering lots of
praise and encouragement also helps to get babies to learn to like
new flavours.
Offer a wide variety of foods and flavours to your baby in the
first few months of weaning and keep trying with those foods that
are initially rejected. This has been shown to reduce fussiness in
children as they get older. For example, a study showed that babies
who were given lots of fruit and vegetables in the first stages of
weaning still liked eating them at age 7 years1.
Combating fussy eating
The fussy eating stage often develops at around 20 months of age
when, frustratingly for parents, previously accepted and new foods
may simply be rejected on sight with a big "NO!" At this stage, if
you persevere and offer this again, you may get your toddler to
accept it but it could take up to 10 separate occasions.
What seems to make things worse is if a different food is
offered as a reward for eating a disliked food. This sends the
message that some foods (usually sweet treats like chocolate or
pudding) are better than others (like, you guessed it, green
vegetables!) It also increases the preference for the reward food,
which is usually the less healthy one.
Offering rewards for eating certain foods or pressuring a child
to eat when they're not necessarily hungry can set up less healthy
eating behaviour in later life. In fact, it can encourage children
to become emotional eaters or to eat when not hungry, which is
thought to increase the chances of becoming overweight in later
life.
There is always the temptation to hide disliked foods in liked
ones but actually toddlers usually notice this and may even refuse
the liked food too as they see it as being 'contaminated'.
Just keep offering the disliked food on its own and eventually your
toddler will learn to like it.
Another way to encourage good eating habits is by giving
toddlers a good example to copy. If a toddler can see their parents
and siblings eating the same, healthy foods as them, they are much
more like to copy and learn the same habits.
Top tips for avoiding fussy eating
To avoid meal time battles, try the following key tips:
- Offer a wide variety of foods, especially vegetables,
particularly in the first few months of weaning
- Keep offering foods that are initially disliked
- Use praise and smiles as a reward for good eating behaviour
rather than unhealthy treats
- Don't hide disliked foods in liked ones
- Set a good example with your own eating habits
- Don't ban foods - offer treat foods once a week so they don't
become a battleground
- Parents should decide WHAT a toddler eats; the toddler should
decide HOW MUCH to eat - never try to force feed