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Rabat – Squabbles over spinach and battles over broccoli are often constant in many families.
However, a study suggests that parents should not blame themselves if their offspring are fussy eaters, because it is mostly down to their genes.
Picky children tend to eat a small range of foods often due to complaints about textures, tastes, or simple unwillingness to try new foods. A child’s fussy eating can be a major source of frustration for parents, as it makes introducing new foods a constant struggle and raises doubts about whether they are receiving the proper nutrition for healthy growth and development.
The study is the first of its kind that tries to untangle the roles nature and nurture play in children’s fussy eating habits. The research looked at identical twins who share 100% of their genes, and non-identical twins who share 50 percent. There were 2,400 pairs from England and Wales.
The surveyed twins’ parents filled in questionnaires about their eating behaviour when children were 16 months, 3, 5, 7, 13 years old.
According to the study, non-identical twins are much less similar when it comes to picky eating than the identical twins, indicating large genetic influence.
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Dr Zeynep Nas of University College London, the study’s lead author, said: “We hope our finding that fussy eating is largely innate will help alleviate parental blame.”
Nas and her colleagues calculated that genes were responsible for about 60 per cent of the difference in fussy eating seen between children at the age of 16 months. That rose to 75-80 per cent between the ages of 3 and 13.
Pickiness peaked, on average, at the age of seven and often persisted until early adolescence.
While researchers point out that genetic factors largely prompt food fussiness, they also note that the environment plays a role. This means that, although you can’t change genetics, creating a positive and varied eating setting can still help influence a child’s eating habits over time.
