How Do Kids Become Picky Eaters?

picky eaters are made by parents or caregivers who don't offer variety. The person giving the child the food sees that the child likes only X, so they only serve X cause that is what the kid will eat. Over time they only offer X cause the kid is only eating that and there you go a picky eater.

There is a GREAT book that I think all parents should read even if they don't have a picky eater yet, cause it will help them prevent one from happening.
by William G Wilkoff, MD called Coping with a Picky Eater http://www.amazon.com/Coping-Picky-Eater-Perplexed-Parent...

This is just my opinion. My son is five and not a picky eater. We do not fight about food. Ever since he was old enough to eat table food, I give him whatever we are eating. I don't make special food for him. If he doesn't want to eat, he doesn't eat. When he says he is done, I let him stop but he doesn't get anything else until the next scheduled meal. I will ask him to eat more veggies If he hasn't eaten any already but it usually isn't a big fight. From my observations, it seems the more you fight with your kids about food, the pickier they are.

Is your daughter 11.5 years or months? I can tell you that with all of my three older kids, they would eat pretty much anything I gave them until 2/2.5/3. Then out of sheer willfulness, and wanting to exert their independence, all of them started to reject foods.Also, I think that the younger they are, they just think they are supposed to eat whatever is given them Then as,especially my oldest, is getting closer to 6, her palate is expanding again. If you don't want to have wars or bribe them(which I will not do for any of my kids), set the rule that they HAVE to take one bite, and if they don't like it they don't have to eat it. If my kids don't eat an appropriate amount of foods that they do like, then no dessert. That's it.

I have a 3 year old daughter and a 2 year old son. My son will eat just about anything, my daughter on the other hand is very picky. My daghter is very sensitive to textures. She will not eat things like noodles. She also doesn't like things like pudding. Last night we had a noodle casserole and we had her take a bit and then she could have a drink. I don't see this as "bribing". She will drink and drink and not eat anything if we let her, so this way she had about 4-5 noodles and that was good enough. Sometimes I think kids just get picky.

Is your daughter 11 months or years???? I'm going with 11 months and as far as the picky eating... offer lots of variety, variety, variety! And don't ever offer dessert if your child has not eaten. Also, don't get in the habit of offering different food if "what's on the menu" for the evening doesn't satisfy them. I think that's the problem with so many kids these days. My children have never lived on hot dogs, mac & cheese, pizza and chicken nuggets. That's not to say that they don't enjoy them but at the point that they have them, they are all still a treat.

So to answer your question, your child may go through picky stages but just keep doing what you are doing and offer variety. If they don't like something, reintroduce it a couple weeks later or prepare it differently. I have very good eaters. And there are so many different kinds of foods, including cultural foods, that they love to eat.

Funny thing is ... my daughter's first solid food at a restaurant was Mexican chicken soup (Lalo's!) - the restaurant was kind enough to give her a larger portion of rice and chicken in her soup and it was her favorite! It was fun watching her enjoy it too.

Enjoy!

If you've made it to 11 1/2 years w/out her being a picky eater, I think you're beyond the point of having to worry about her being picky. I have a 7 year old who is extremely picky. I'm not a picky eater but his Dad is. Believe me, I never expected to have a picky eater but unfortunately I do and we try everything. Sometimes, I think it is hereditary and other times I think it's textures he doesn't like. All I can pray for is he'll out grow it as he gets older and be more willing to try new things as his Dad has. So be thankful.

I was a picky eater as a child and so was my older son. My parents told me I had to eat everything on my plate or I couldn't leave the table. I used to stuff peas in my napkin and hide them behind the stereo. (I still don't like peas!)

I vowed not to force food down my kids like my parents did. We didn't bribe anyone - what a terrible thing to teach and for the kids to learn! How does bribing teach a lesson you can use as an adult?

I introduced new foods and ideas to my kids in small amounts. My picky eater was eating Chinese food at age 11 and liked mushrooms! I couldn't stand either until I turned 21! My husband and I ate various foods and let them see us eating something like salmon, while they had fish sticks. Eventually they would ask to taste the salmon, and then found out how good it was!

Be patient - it will work out. If they aren't hungry, then no amount of forcing will convince them to eat. Let's not encourage obesity, please!

M. in Elk Grove Vlg.

Hi J.,

As many here have said, kids being picky or not is as individual as the child. I have 4 boys, two who eat anything and everything, one who grew out of his pickiness and is more willing to try things (but not until he got to college and was forced into eating to not go hungry) and one very picky eater who thinks chicken nuggets, fish sticks and pizza are food groups. The interesting thing about my very picky eater, is that he was exactly like your daughter until he was about 4, then the pickiness set in. I never, and still, don't cater to that. He always had to eat whatever I made and didn't get snacks so he could fill up later, there seemed to be no reason why this happened, it just did.

As to table wars, you'll be in charge of that, if you make food and eating an issue, it will become an issue. If your daughter doesn't want to eat, the more you make a fuss over it, the more fusses will happen. And she will go through periods of time, no matter how good of an eater she remains, where she just may not want to eat. Or she'll get stuck on one or two foods and only want those. When my 22 year old was a toddler and going through this phase my pediatrician told me there wasn't a child on record who had starved themselves to death. They'll eat when they're hungry. Continue to offer him a variety of good foods and he'll get past it - and he did.

I think the main point I'm trying to make here is that no matter how much you do the right thing, your very individual child will eventually make up her own mind about food preferences and the more you accept that, the less of any kind of war - table or otherwise - you'll have.

If she's a good eater now, she probably always will be...unless she goes to nursing school like my SIL and decided that she won't eat pork anymore. Have a friend whose niece decided she was a vegetarian when she started highschool because of a science teacher that convinced her it was cruel and inhumane to eat animals. I think she's over that now that she has graduated and suffered from various health issues because she didn't know enough about food to eat right as a vegetarian.

I had about a year when my son would eat anything...zuchini, asparagas, eggplant, etc. Then it all changed almost overnight. I don't know why.

There is an excellent article in Wonder Time Magazine that explains this very thing! Go pick it up, it just came out this month!

I don't know what the answer is but I just wanted to say that my kids always ate very well as babies....then it seemed like they started getting their own opinion (around 15 mos or so) and got picky.

I think its just that kids are different. Just ike adultas somethings just seem gross to them. I have 5 kids and only one of them is an extremely picky eater it drives me nuts! but thins just gross him out he is 7 and still only eats a handful of things definetly nothing mixed or soups just pretty plain things. I think with him it has to do with his senses they are just extremly sensitive. I have never forced him to try things and never will in his situation its definetly a sensory thing.