Is your kid a picky eater? It’s probably not your fault, study shows

Trying to convince your kid to eat their food can be a struggle. The tears, the tantrums – many parents will know the feeling only too well.

 

But those failing to tempt their child to eat their broccoli can take solace, as research has found that picky eating is largely down to genes rather than environment.

A new study led by researchers from University College London, King’s College London and the University of Leeds found that food fussiness in children is “a largely genetic trait,” while other factors, such as the types of foods eaten at home and where meals are eaten, may only be significant when the child is a toddler.

The research involved more than 2,000 pairs of both identical and non-identical twins born in 2007 and based in the United Kingdom. Parents answered questions about their children’s eating behaviors from the ages of 16 months to 13 years old.

Most identical twins share 100% of their genetic material, while non-identical twins do not, which meant the researchers could compare genetic and environmental influences on food fussiness across both groups and take inferences from this.

They found that non-identical twin pairs were much less similar when it came to picky eating than identical twin pairs. This indicates that genetics have a large influence on how reluctant a child is to try new foods.

The research also found that food pickiness tends to peak when a child is 7 years old, often declining slightly as they enter adolescence.

Picky eating “often causes a lot of stress for the children and their families,” Moritz Herle, a researcher at King’s College London and one of the study’s lead authors, said. “Our research indicates that differences between children’s fussy eating can be largely attributed to genetic factors, which hopefully will help to alleviate some of the blame directed at parents.”

“We hope our finding that fussy eating is largely innate may help to alleviate parental blame. This behavior is not a result of parenting,” added UCL researcher Zeynep Nas, the paper’s other lead author.

The study found that environmental factors can, however, have an impact on a child’s food pickiness when they are a toddler. This could mean that, if a child is picky at this age, early interventions to help them learn to eat a wider range of food could reduce their pickiness in the future.

Abigail Pickard, a researcher in developmental child psychology at Aston University who wasn’t involved in the research, told CNN that picky eating is “quite common” in children. One of her recent studies found that approximately 16% of British children aged between 3 and 5 showed picky eating behavior, with factors such as age, parental feeding practices, and culture playing a part.

“Parents should try to maintain a relaxed atmosphere around mealtimes and avoid turning food into a power struggle,” Pickard suggested, adding that caregivers should model healthy eating habits and avoid offering children food as a reward for eating disliked foods, as this could create a negative association.

The study was published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.