Researchers have found that picky eating is heavily influenced by genetics and tends to peak around age seven. Their analysis indicates that food fussiness begins in early childhood and persists through early adolescence. According to the study, published in the Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, the findings suggest that being selective about food is not merely a "phase" that children outgrow. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00So we were very interested in understanding why some children might be fussier in terms
00:05of their eating habits in comparison to children who weren't. And by fussy eating I mean
00:11more selectivity in terms of their food palette and more generally a reluctance to try new foods.
00:20And we used a very neat design known as a twin study which allows an estimation of the relative
00:28influence of genetic influences and also environmental influences as well. And the
00:35way we do this is by comparing identical twins to non-identical twins. And we used
00:41twins who are measured all the way up from 16 months all the way up to 12 to 13 years of age.
00:48And using this large population-based cohort we find that food fussiness across childhood
00:54and into adolescence was very stable. And food fussiness was also largely contributed to
01:01by genetic influences in the population. And a lot of children could potentially struggle with
01:07greens for example, more cruciferous vegetables potentially due to the texture. But I think this
01:12really depends on an individual basis. I mean and there's lots of things that parents can do
01:17to support their children in terms of their fussy eating. So for example evidence suggests
01:24that repeated exposure to foods that children might be struggling with or might be a bit nervous
01:30about can actually be quite effective in widening the food palette for children. But also more
01:37generally continuing to offer those foods and to offer more supportive mealtimes and to make
01:43mealtimes more enjoyable I think generally is the advice going forward for parents.