Introduction

Understanding Fussy Eating

There’s no single reason why children become fussy eaters—it’s as unique as they are. While every child’s experience is different, there are some common factors that often play a role. Understanding these reasons can be the first step toward helping your child explore and enjoy a wider variety of foods. Let’s take a closer look at what might be behind your child’s picky eating habits. These are not listed in order of prevalence.

1. Stressful meal-times can reduce appetite increase the risk of fussy eating.

Modern life seems to be fast. Fast can be stressful. Eating is not meant to be a stressful time, but the pressures of life can make it difficult to slow down to eat calmly. There are some relaxation techniques to help with this, as well as modifying environmental cues to improve the atmosphere of a room or eating environment.

Aside from life being stressful, applying pressure to a child to eat appears to also increase their likelihood to become a fussy eater. In a study on picky eating, over 50% of children show fussy eating behaviours around the early toddler years. For those children whose mother applied pressure to eat, the rates of picky eating increased as the child got older. For mothers that didn’t apply pressure, the picky eating behaviours significantly reduced. I know there are a lot of questions surrounding a research project like this. You can follow up the research here if you want to look into it yourself.

2. Difficulties with chewing, swallowing or postural weakness.

If your child has low muscle tone or has trouble with chewing or swallowing these can all contribute to difficulties in eating. A speech pathologist can help with the swallowing and chewing issues, or an occupational therapist can help with muscle tone. These are some of the issues that can come up in a feeding therapy assessment of your child.

Chewing and swallowing challenges in young children are sometimes related to when they learnt to manipulate food in their mouth. If they ate smooth food that didn’t need chewing beyond around 9 months of age, they may have missed a key learning opportunity to chew and swallow properly. It may seem a bit surprising that this is something that needs to be learnt in the second 6 months of a babies life, as it would seem to be a natural process. There are many reasons why this may have been missed. The important thing to note is that they can learn it later if this is the problem.

Postural weakness is not my area of expertise, but it is a significant aspect to eating. Having a supported posture can reduce any anxiety around feeling safe when sitting up at a table. Some children with lower muscle tone may feel insecure when eating due to this. This is something that can be fairly easily modified. For more information on this topic click this link.

Baby well supported in chair

3. Early childhood trauma or fear around food, can lead to fussy eating.

Sometimes, these fears are caused by a medical intervention that is necessary, like being placed on a feeding tube (Nasogastric tube). Part of the role of the family in these situations is to show them that they are safe. Early childhood trauma is, again, not my area of expertise. If your child does suffer from this, a paediatric psychologist would be better informed on how to help them move beyond this fear—having said that, feeding therapy can play a role in addressing these fears as well, through a gentle approach of play-based learning or food exploring depending on the age of the child.

4. Allergy or food intolerances can also cause fear with food.

Having a big reaction to a food can lead to fear of eating. It might be related to a scary or traumatic experience like an anaphylactic reaction or from a more simple reason like they associate the eating of some foods with a tummy ache and pain. Working out what food is causing tummy pain can be a bit of a process, but will be worth investigating if this is a potential cause of the fussy eating behaviours.

5. Constipation can also be a trigger for fussy eating.

Constipation can reduce the space in the stomach or the discomfort can reduce their appetite. If they associate pain with defecation, then this can also increase their fear of going to the toilet and contribute further to constipation. This is often a cyclic problem. It is important to deal with constipation as early as possible and some children will need professional help in this area. Two professionals that I am aware of that can help are your paediatric gastroenterologist and a continence physiotherapist. Getting the child’s fibre intake up is important to reduce the reoccurrence of constipation. This is not so easy when they are fussy. Engaging in feeding therapy can help but it is a slow process. Your child will likely need medical assistance as well.

Constipation

6. Food taste preferences.

Children’s taste buds are often more sensitive to flavours than adult taste buds, which is why you may see people who were fussy as children broaden their food preferences as teens or adults. It is important to respect their food preferences while trying to expand their diet. I know that there are certain foods that disgust me and I would feel upset if someone tried to make me eat them. If I was exposed to those foods regularly, I may or may not start to enjoy them. This is why regular exposure to a variety of foods can help with overcoming fussy eating, but also, time for taste buds to lose their sensitivity will help.

7. Sensory issues

These are becoming more widely acknowledged as a reason for fussy eating. People with Autism or Sensory Processing Disorder or even ADHD can suffer from hyper-sensitivity to textures, tastes, smells, or the sight of food. Even if you are not diagnosed with one of these issues, it is not uncommon to see people having an aversion to certain food textures like slimy foods such as cooked mushrooms or oysters.

Child playing with jelly for sensory desensitisation.

Sensory exposure

8. Constant snacking can reduce appetite.

If your child is a constant snacker they may not be hungry enough to explore new foods. I am not advocating for starving children though. Offering food every 2 to 3 hours is a good guide to allow them to start to feel hungry between meals. Having a regular meal schedule can help with this. I will talk more about this in my next blog post.

Lots of snacks

9. Role modelling

If you role model a fear or dislike of certain foods it can teach children that food is to be feared. Conversely, role modelling exploring food and showing children that it is safe can have a positive effect on their interest in trying new things. In fact, eating the same food as the child, and with the child was shown to be a protective factor for reducing the likelihood of fussy eating in this study.

Eating together

10. Lack of exposure to food can reinforce a negative attitude to the food.

What I mean is that if your child has expressed a dislike of a food and you stop giving that food to them, and verbally reinforce that “Josephine doesn’t like the tomatoes” as an example, the child will believe that to be true. What we do know is that children can develop a liking for food that they are exposed to on a regular basis, just as they can develop an aversion to food they aren’t exposed to because it is unfamiliar. Swapping the way we express these sentiments to have a positive spin can do a surprising amount of good through positive reinforcement. You might say instead, “Josephine is learning about the tomatoes.” This expresses that it is not a final outcome, but a journey and will allow the child to have more exposure to the food to decide if they like it or not. When I say exposure, I don’t mean to eat it. Exposure can mean seeing it being eaten, having it to touch, smell or explore with other senses before they are ready to eat it. This is all positive exposure and reduces the fear or the label of “dislike”.

Food play

Final Thoughts

I know this list is not exhaustive, but you may see yourself or a loved one in one of these reasons for fussy eating. The good news is that most of these issues can be helped. Some will be easier to change than others. You may need professional help to either get you started or to help identify any medical issues. I have found that some children and teens respond well to an outsider helping them with food acceptance rather than a parent. It does depend on the issue, the age of the person and their interest or willingness to change. The younger children often don’t have the will to change unless they can see how it is negatively affecting them, so exposure can be the first step for them. Once again, each family or person will have unique needs. It is important to determine the cause to help develop a strategy for change.

If you would like some help with developing a strategy, don’t hesitate to get in touch and we can work out a plan forward.

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