Are you also one of the parents who are having a tough time feeding their children ‘healthy foods'? Do your kids push the veggies to one corner of the plate, or reject the food that you serve them? According to a new study, published in the journal ‘Pediatrics', most children do not grow out of their picky eating habits. Researchers at university of Michigan found that it is often difficult for children who are picky eaters to transform overnight, the feat may take a much longer time. Children could be established picky eaters by the age of four, the researchers said. The study also said that more the parents tried to be strict with their child and restrict unhealthy foods like cola and sweets, in order to shift their gaze towards healthy and palatable diet — the more finicky they turned out to be. The study also said that high picky eating was associated with lower BMIs.
According to the researchers, attempts to expand food preferences of a child are supposedly most effective when he/she is a toddler or in preschool years. Controlling feeding behaviours with excessive amounts of strictness may not be the best way forward.
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