Picky eating habits are in the genes, not your bad parenting
Categories: Toddlers, Development
I have written in previous posts about my frustrations regarding my youngest son's eating habits. Devon prefers mostly sweet foods, goat's milk or soft things. He shuns nearly all forms of protein, almost anything that grows in the ground and food with textures. Most of the time I can deal with his dietary quirks, but there are days when I enjoy a bit of self flogging over his lousy eating habits. However, it could be that I can let myself off the hook from now on, it could be that his eating habits are a result of genetics and not my lousy parenting abilities.A team of British researchers have found that nearly 80% of a child's reluctance to try new foods is inherited. This does not meant hat consistent efforts of introducing new foods into a child's diet are not required, it simply means that parents should not beat themselves up over the fact that their kids are not alway adventurous when it comes to food exploration.
I am not sure if this case is applicable to my son's eating habits, but it sure does make me feel better about the whole situation. Do you have a picky eater? Does it bother you? How do you cope?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Melissa 8-23-2007 @ 4:58PM
Does this mean I have to feel guilty about my bad genes now?
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Rebecca 8-23-2007 @ 6:52PM
We have two daughters age 5 and 7. They couldn't be more different in their eating habits. The youngest loves "everything" and the oldest shuns all vegetables except corn. Their eating habits are night and day.
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Jenny 8-23-2007 @ 11:17PM
My children are also night-and-day, so I don't feel it has a lot to do with anything I did. My older daughter lives pretty much on mac-n-cheese, grilled cheese, peanut butter, hot dogs, apples, and a few other fruits. My younger daughter will eat anything, the spicier the better, and turns up her nose at mac-n-cheese. She eats all kinds of vegetables and loves carrots in curry sauce.
My older daughter actually was so picky in her early eating days that we went to eating therapy (she lost weight between 12 and 13 months) and I'm still just happy that she eats anything. I don't worry about it, though I do get a little frustrated with her yelling that the food the rest of us are eating "stinks."
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Rob 9-04-2007 @ 3:20PM
Here is a poll asking where you usually eat dinner: http://www.apopularitycontest.com/display_poll.php?ID=5808
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