Picky eating may be mostly due to genetics, according to a recent study in England.
Scientists compared the fussiness of 2,400 sets of twins, born in 2007 between the ages of 16 months and 13 years, and analyzed trends between identical twins—who share all their genes—with non-identical twins, who share half their genes.
"Food fussiness is common among children and can be a major source of anxiety for parents and caregivers, who often blame themselves for this behavior or are blamed by others," lead author Dr. Zeynep Nas of University College London (UCL) said in a statement. "We hope our finding that fussy eating is largely innate may help to alleviate parental blame. This behavior is not a result of parenting."
The authors said their research was important because of the strain that picky eating could put on families and parents, and because severe pickiness could lead to nutritional deficiencies, unhealthy weight or food anxiety in children.
They also noted that food fussiness in childhood was linked with an increased risk for disordered eating in adolescence and young adulthood, notably for avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), where people eat a very limited number of foods.
The study concluded that food fussiness was 60 percent a result of genetics for toddlers, and at least 74 percent attributable to genetics between the ages of 3 and 13.
It also found that picky eaters were relatively consistent, tending to stay pickier than their peers throughout their childhoods.
"Fussy eating is not necessarily just a 'phase,' but may follow a persistent trajectory," Nas said.
That doesn't mean children stayed the same level of picky regardless of age. In general, the scientists found that slightly fussy toddlers became even fussier 7-year-olds, and then less fussy as they got older.
Environmental factors that were shared between sets of twins seemed to be significant only when the children were toddlers and explained about one-quarter of food fussiness at that age, the study found.
"While genetic factors are the predominant influence for food fussiness, environment also plays a supporting role," senior author professor Clare Llewellyn of UCL said in a statement. "Shared environmental factors, such as sitting down together as a family to eat meals, may only be significant in toddlerhood.
"This suggests that interventions to help children eat a wider range of foods, such as repeatedly exposing children to the same foods regularly and offering a variety of fruits and vegetables, may be most effective in the very early years."
Meanwhile, environmental factors that differed between twins, such as their friendship groups, became more influential as they got older.
"Parents can continue to support their children to eat a wide variety of foods throughout childhood and into adolescence, but peers and friends might become a more important influence on children's diets as they reach their teens," senior author Alison Fildes of the University of Leeds said.
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Reference
Nas, Z., Herle, M., Kininmonth, A. R., Smith, Andrea D., Bryant-Waugh, R., Fildes, A., & Llewellyn, C. H. (2024). Nature and nurture in fussy eating from toddlerhood to early adolescence: findings from the Gemini twin cohort. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.14053
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