Kids Nutrition Program - © extension.unh.edu

Fussy Eating May Well Be A Genetic Predisposition

The common wisdom is that fussy eating is a behavioural problem, a phase most kids grow out of. But a new study suggests food fussiness is actually a genetic condition lasting from toddlerhood through adolescence – not a result of poor parenting…

Kids Cooking Family - © activekids.comGetting kids involved in prepping and cooking meals, baking, and other
food-related activities can help reduce their food fussiness.

I used to think that kids who were fussy eaters – especially the ones with an extreme form of the af-fliction – were just ‘entitled’ little brats. I agreed to some degree at least, with those who suggested their parents were too permissive to enforce good manners and eating habits. I’ll be the first to ad-mit, I may have been wrong…

Surprising findings

A new twins study from University College London (UK) has come up with some surprising findings that many old-school parents, aunties and uncles may find unsettling – even disappointing.

Much study has already been invested in untangling the mystery of fussy eating. And up until now, results have been inconclusive. And when that happens, learned investigators eventually turn to the ancient and implacable Scientific Method. Which produces incontrovertible, objective factual evi-dence to decide a question. Whether we like the ‘facts’ it comes up with or not…

What they did

Researchers decided to ‘control’ their clinical study for environmental influences by including as subjects only pairs of twins. The key to their method was comparing the results from identical twin pairs and fraternal twin pairs. Identical twins share 100 percent of their DNA. Fraternal twins share only 50 percent.

Parents were asked to fill in questionnaires about their children’s eating behaviours when the kids were 16 months, three years, five years, seven years and 13 years old.

What they found

One key, overall finding: “[F]ussy eating is not necessarily just a ‘phase’, but may follow a persistent trajectory.” Fussiness could reliably identified in kids as young as 16 months, rising to a slight peak at 3 years. And dropping off gradually from there to age 13.

The team found that non-identical twin pairs were much less similar in their fussy eating habits than identical twin pairs, indicating a large genetic influence.

The team also found that identical twin pairs became more different from each other in their fussy eating habits as they got older. This was attributed to diverging environmental and social influences as each twin absorbed an increasing variety of different, non-shared experiences.

The takeaway

“Our study […] shows that fussy eating is not necessarily just a ‘phase’, but may follow a persistent trajectory.”

“We hope our finding, that fussy eating is largely innate, may help to alleviate parental blame. This behaviour is not a result of parenting.”

My take

I’ll admit I may have been wrong about the underlying nature of fussy eating. Though I still maintain there IS a parenting component involved.

I also believe that appropriate parenting, both by instruction and example, can go a long way to-wards countering ‘innate’ fussiness.

Getting kids involved in prepping and cooking meals, baking, and other food-related activities can help reduce their food fussiness. The more interested they become in foods, the more likely they are to try new ones.

And I will always insist that encouraging kids to eat a wide variety of foods, from the earliest possible age, will benefit them in a whole bunch of ways in later life.

~ Maggie J.