Fussy eating advice

10 myths about fussy eating

MYTH #1: CHILDREN ARE NATURALLY FUSSY. WE JUST HAVE TO GRIN AND BEAR IT.

Yes, humans – little and big! – can have an innate aversion to a few foods and a innate preference for certain foods over others, but a child isn’t born fussy any more than a calf decides it doesn’t want to eat grass! It is our behaviour and reaction to our children’s eating that has the most powerful impact of all! This is what determines whether fussy eating becomes a problem or not.

MYTH #2: IT’S JUST A PHASE. THEY’LL GROW OUT OF IT.

Many children do grow out of fussy eating – but often not until they’re well into double digits. That’s thousands of stressy mealtimes to get through before then! Better to take action now – and the younger you do it, the better.

MYTH #3: I NEED TO FIND SOME NEW RECIPES THAT THEY’LL EAT.

Trying new recipes and offering your child different meals is great, but the solution to fussy eating is not looking for foods they ‘like’. Fussy eating doesn’t start because they dislike the food. It starts when they realise it gets them huge amounts of power and attention!

MYTH #4: IT’S OKAY TO DO WHATEVER WORKS TO GET THEM TO EAT SOMETHING.

Encouraging, pestering, nagging, praising or bribing your child may get a few more peas or spoonfuls of rice into them – one slow, painful meal at at time – but you’re simply inviting them to an ongoing power battle. One they can win more easily than you!

MYTH #5: I NEED TO BUY CHILD-FRIENDLY FOOD.

Your child may enjoy carrot from a squeezy pouch or be enticed by Peppa Pig pasta, but these type of foods give them the message that children don’t – or can’t – eat the same food as adults. So they encourage, not discourage fussy eating.

MYTH #6: I NEED TO CUT OUT SNACKS SO THEY’RE HUNGRIER AT MEALTIMES.

This can make for one miserable, difficult-to-manage child in the lead-up to lunch or dinner – and therefore make mealtimes worse, not better.

MYTH #7: I NEED TO MAKE FOOD FUN.

A good dose of fun around food is a positive thing but making smiley faces with veg on top of a pizza or shaping mashed potato into a hedgehog won’t solve fussy eating. Kids soon twig that it’s just another way of you trying to get them to eat something – and they’ll react against that!

MYTH #8: THERE’S NO POINT IN GIVING MY CHILD A FOOD I KNOW THEY WON’T EAT. IT JUST GETS WASTED.

Quite the contrary. If they don’t even see a food, they can’t become familiar and comfortable with it  – which is a vital step towards them actually eating it. The key is exposure, exposure, exposure. Keep putting a tiny bit of a food on their plate whether they eat it or not. (Remember, they can’t start eating a food that isn’t even there!)

MYTH #9: HIDING VEG IN A PASTA SAUCE OR SOUP IS THE ONLY WAY FORWARD.

If we don’t give our children the opportunity to see and get used to vegetables ‘in the flesh’, we have no hope of them eating them. Adding veg to recipes for extra goodness is fine, but don’t do it as alternative to presenting vegetables boldly and proudly.

MYTH #10: I JUST NEED SOME REALLY GOOD TIPS.

There’s no magic wand you can wave to stop fussy eating overnight. But ‘starting again’ with a fresh, new, clear, concrete approach to food and mealtimes – with 100% consistency and commitment – will ‘gradually ‘undo’ fussy eating. And with a typical fussy eater, we’re talking a matter of months, not years. What’s that in the timescale of a whole childhood?!