Will Picky Eaters Outgrow It?

Bites nutrition Children may not always grow out of being picky eaters

Being overly restrictive with children's diets might not be the best strategy; most finicky eaters maintain a healthy childhood weight

If your preschooler often pushes their dinner plate away or wages battles against taking another bite of a vegetable they don't like, they may not grow out of it anytime soon.

By age four, children could be established picky eaters, a new study suggests. And the more parents try to control and restrict children's diets, the more finicky they may become, according to findings published in Pediatrics. "Picky eating is common during childhood and parents often hear that their children will eventually 'grow out of it.' But that's not always the case," says senior author Megan Pesch, M.D., a developmental behavioral pediatrician at Michigan Medicine C.S. Mott Children's Hospital.

But there's a silver lining for worried parents -- while fussy eaters have a lower body mass index, most are still in the healthy range and not underweight, researchers found. They may also be less likely to be overweight or experience obesity than peers. "We still want parents to encourage varied diets at young ages, but our study suggests that they can take a less controlling approach," Pesch says. That being said "we need more research to better understand how children's limited food choices impact healthy weight gain and growth long term."

The study followed 317 mother-child pairs from low-income homes over a four-year period. Families reported on children's eating habits and mothers' behaviors and attitudes about feeding when children were four, five, six, eight and nine.

Picky eating was stable from preschool to school-age, indicating that any attempts to expand food preferences may need to occur in toddler or preschool years to be most effective. High picky eating was associated with lower BMIs and low picky eating was associated with higher BMIs.

The pickiest eaters also were often associated with increased pressure to eat and restriction on certain types of foods. This reinforces previous Mott-led research suggesting that pressuring children to eat foods they dislike won't lead to a well-rounded diet later in life or encourage better health or development.

Certain child characteristics, including sex, birth order, and socioeconomic status, also have been associated with persistence of picky eating. "We found that children who were pickier had mothers who reported more restriction of unhealthy foods and sweets," Pesch says. "These mothers of picky eaters may be trying to shape their children's preferences for more palatable and selective diets to be more healthful. But it may not always have the desired effect."

It is unknown if children who are picky eaters would have become even more selective if they did not receive higher levels of controlling feeding behaviors, Pesch says. She says future studies should investigate interventions around maternal feeding and child picky eating.

The mother-daughter duo who painted their town a rainbow

BY AMANDA COLLINS BERNIER

Four days, countless miles, and 176 flags.

That’s how Lisa Gregoire and Ava Mackin celebrated Pride Month.

Just weeks before the pandemic shut down everyday life in March, the motherdaughter duo from Sturbridge launched Somewhere Over the Rainbow, a social club for LGBTQ+ youth in their local community. As the stay-at-home advisory wore on into June, they came up with an idea to support LGBTQ+ youth from home.

“All these Pride events had been cancelled and we were feeling disappointed and thinking ‘there has to be a way they’re still supported. There still has to be some way to celebrate,’” Gregoire said.

A few months before, she had purchased a bulk order of mini rainbow flags to pass out to members of their newly formed club. But with meetings on hold, she thought of passing them out to neighbors and friends to display at their homes throughout the month of June.

“Yes!” Ava agreed. “We can paint the towns a rainbow!”

Gregiore, who’s general manager at Saw Dust Coffee

House and Dessert Bar in Sturbridge and a commercial artist, reached out to her local contacts to sign dozens of local businesses and organizations onto the initiative. Each time a new flag went up, she posted a picture on Facebook with the hashtag #paintthetownsrainbow.

Soon strangers in Gregoire's hometown and beyond were reaching out to see how they could get a flag. Over the course of four days, they hand delivered more than 175 flags big and small to residents and businesses in a half dozen towns.

“It was a chore, but I was blown away by the support we got,” said Gregoire.

A mom of three (and soonto-be stepmom to two more) Gregoire has been supportive of her oldest daughter’s sexualitly since she came out at 12. Gregoire can easily recall the nonchalant way her daughter told her she was gay.

“We in the car and she was just talking -- she’s always talking -- and she looked over at me and said ‘mom, you know I’m gay,’” Gregoire recalled. “And I said, ‘I do?’ She was just like, ‘yeah, mom,’ and grabbed her backpack and hopped out of the car.”

A hint of concern crept in. Would she be bullied, Gregoire wondered? Would she have the support she needed at school? But Ava is confident and selfassured, moving through her teenage years authentically, with the backing of a always supportive family.

Not all kids are given this chance to feel supported, though. Some face a lack of support at home or in their community. One study of more than 10,000 LGBT-identified youth, ages 13-17, reported 26 percent said their non-accepting families were the greatest problem they face.

Ava, who is entering eighth grade in the fall, has friends who are in that boat. Looking for a safe space to meet with local LGBTQ+ youth, she found the closest groups were several miles away in Worcester. That’s when she approached her mom about starting Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

The group, which hasn’t fully started up yet due to the coronavirus pandemic, is a social club for LGBTQ+ teens and tweens in the greater Sturbridge area.

“Just a place where they can hang out, talk about things, and feel accepted. I know a lot of these kids struggle,” said Gregoire.

The group’s bi-weekly meetings will resume when pandemic coronavirus concerns lift. For more information about getting involved, follow Somewhere Over the Rainbow on Facebook.

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