For many parents, getting your children to eat enough fruit and veg can feel like a daily battle.
But if your child is picky about what they eat, a new study suggests there’s no reason to blame your parenting skills.
Scientists from University College London (UCL) studied food preferences in more than 2,400 pairs of identical and non-identical twins.
Their findings indicate that genetics account for 60 per cent of how fussy a child is at 16 months.
And the role of genetics actually increases as children get older, accounting for 74 per cent of fussiness between ages three and 13 years.
For many parents, getting your children to eat enough fruit and veg can feel like a daily battle. But if your child is picky about what they eat, a new study suggests there’s no reason to blame your parenting skills (stock image)
While DNA has a big role in fussiness, it does not mean parents should give up on attempting to encourage healthy eating, the authors say.
Food fussiness is defined as a tendency to eat a small range of foods, whether due to textures or tastes, and the reluctance to try new foods.
Lead author Dr Zeynep Nas of University College London said: ‘Food fussiness is common among children and can be a major source of anxiety for parents and caregivers, who often blame themselves for this behaviour or are blamed by others.
‘We hope our finding that fussy eating is largely innate may help to alleviate parental blame. This behaviour is not a result of parenting.
‘Our study also shows that fussy eating is not necessarily just a ‘phase’, but may follow a persistent trajectory.’
Previous studies have found that only 16 per cent of kids are classed as ‘fussy’, while the other 84 per cent are either ‘avid’, ‘happy’, or ‘typical’ eaters, they say
Senior author Professor Clare Llewellyn of UCL said: ‘While genetic factors are the predominant influence for food fussiness, environment also plays a supporting role.
‘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.’
In the study, parents of twins filled in questionnaires about their children’s eating behaviours when the children were 16 months, three, five, seven and 13 years old.
They found that non-identical twins showed greater difference in their fussy eating habits than identical twins, indicating a large genetic influence.
Identical twins have identical DNA, while non-identical twins only have 50 per cent of their DNA in common.
If you’re still struggling to get children to eat veg, previous studies have found that doubling the serving size leads to a 68 per cent increase in veggies eaten
The researchers found that fussiness tended to peak at the age of seven before gradually declining as shown on this graph of fussiness against age. The study also found that children with higher fussiness in earlier years tended to have a higher peak fussiness but also a sharper decrease between the ages of seven and 13
The team also found that identical twins became less alike in their fussy eating as they got older, indicating an increase in the role of unique environmental factors at older ages.
Senior author Dr Alison Fildes of the University of Leeds said: ‘Although fussy eating has a strong genetic component and can extend beyond early childhood, this doesn’t mean it is fixed.
‘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.’
One limitation of the study, the authors said is that the study had a large proportion of white British households from wealthier backgrounds.
In future, the team said, research should focus on non-western populations where food culture, parental feeding practices and food security may be quite different.
WHAT SHOULD A BALANCED DIET LOOK LIKE?
Meals should be based on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, ideally wholegrain, according to the NHS
• Eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day. All fresh, frozen, dried and canned fruit and vegetables count
• Base meals on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, ideally wholegrain
• 30 grams of fibre a day: This is the same as eating all of the following: 5 portions of fruit and vegetables, 2 whole-wheat cereal biscuits, 2 thick slices of wholemeal bread and large baked potato with the skin on
• Have some dairy or dairy alternatives (such as soya drinks) choosing lower fat and lower sugar options
• Eat some beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins (including 2 portions of fish every week, one of which should be oily)
• Choose unsaturated oils and spreads and consuming in small amounts
• Drink 6-8 cups/glasses of water a day
• Adults should have less than 6g of salt and 20g of saturated fat for women or 30g for men a day
Source: NHS Eatwell Guide
