After a certain age, forcing a child to diversify his diet is useless

Learning to diversify your diet is not innate. The next time your child refuses to eat vegetables he doesn’t like, don’t force him, as this may make him more reluctant to eat them, a habit he may keep later. A new study published in the journal Pediatrics and conducted by researchers at the S. Mott Children’s Hospital reveals that at the age of four, it is possible to know whether the child will become finicky with food or not.

According to Megan Pesch, lead author of the study and a developmental and behavioral pediatrician at CS Mott Children’s Hospital, “children are often difficult in school and parents often hear that their children will get through it eventually, but this is not always the case.”

Forcing a child to eat is useless

Although “choosy” children are thought to have a lower body mass index, the study suggests that most culinary picky children fall within a healthy range and are not underweight, and that they are less likely to be overweight or obese than their peers.

“We want parents to value varied diets from an early age, however, our study suggests they can take a less controlled approach.”says Megan Pesch, adding that “we need more research to better understand how children’s limited food choices affect healthy weight gain and long-term growth.”

To conduct the study, the researchers tracked the eating habits, behaviors and attitudes of mothers regarding food in 317 mother-child pairs from low-income households over a four-year period. Data was collected from families when the children were four, five, six, eight and nine years old.

The team found that picky eaters started showing signs of refusing to eat what they didn’t like as early as preschool age. According to the researchers, this behavioral trait suggests that parents who wish to expand their children’s food preferences should do so from infancy or preschool, as it is found to be most effective.

Reluctance to diversify one’s diet

Although the study established a link between a little varied diet and a low BMI on the one hand and a diversified diet with a high BMI on the other hand, it generally suggests that this restricted diet cannot be associated with poor health. .

Many diet-restricted consumers have revealed that they face increased pressure to eat and restrictions on certain types of food, which further adds credence to a previous study which suggested that forcing children to eat foods they dislike could not lead to a balanced diet later in life.

The researchers also found that certain characteristics, such as gender, birth order and parental socioeconomic status, were also associated with resistance to diversifying their diet.

“We found that children who were reluctant to vary their diets had mothers who reported greater restriction of unhealthy foods and sweetssays Megan Pesch. These mothers of fussy children may try to determine their children’s preferences for more appetizing and selective diets in order to be healthier. But that doesn’t always have the desired effect.”

Further studies are needed to determine whether there are links between parental intervention in food and the culinary whims of children. Finally, the study could not establish whether higher levels of control over eating behaviors could make children even more selective as they get older.