Trajectories of Picky Eating in Low-Income US Children | American Academy of Pediatrics

Trajectories of Picky Eating in Low-Income US Children | American Academy of Pediatrics

The persistence of picky eating in children

Being demanding about eating or restricting the types of foods kids can have might only make picky eaters more choosy, according to a study out this morning in the journal Pediatrics. Researchers followed more than 300 parent/child pairs for five years and found that picky eating was a persistent trait, lasting from age 4 to age 9. That indicates that any successful interventions would likely need to occur early, but so far, researchers have not established strategies that work. The researchers did uncover an association, however, between picky eating and lower body mass indexes.