Your toddler demands a Bluey-themed yoghurt and has a tantrum when offered something else. If it’s not a Nutella sandwich, your child’s lunchbox comes home uneaten. And the dinner table can become a battleground unless there are sausages, chicken nuggets or pizza on the plate.
These examples of fussy eating are everyday experiences for many parents.
Fussy eating, also known as picky or selective eating, is common , and can be frustrating. It’s often seen as a child or parenting issue. But it’s not merely shaped by what parents do, or the characteristics of the child .
Our new research suggests food fussiness and children’s eating habits are also shaped by commercial interests in food.
This includes mass produced foods that are high in sugar, salt and additives, combined in irresistible combinations and that are heavily promoted to children to maximise sales .
This has important implications for children’s health , and sets up tensions between what parents want their children to eat, and what they’ll actually eat.
What is ‘fussy eating’?
Fussy eating refers to having strong preferences for specific foods. Sometimes it involves not trying new foods, eating a limited variety of foods, or avoiding foods with a specific taste, texture or appearance.
Most research estimates 10-30% of children two to six years old are considered fussy eaters, peaking at around three years old.
The origins of food fussiness lie in the age-old practice of learning which foods are safe to eat and provide enough energy. This is why we often like sweet foods and not bitter ones.
Today, food companies capitalise on this biology of survival. They engineer and market foods to appeal to children, and in ways that confuse their parents.
What we did and what we found
We interviewed 34 parents of children aged one to 18 years old about their children’s eating habits and how they navigated them.
Parents talked about how they felt pitted against powerful food companies that influenced their children’s tastes.
Their comments also revealed fussy eating in children older than most earlier research presumes. We found this is developing in the primary school years when children are exposed to more ultra-processed foods.
Here are some of the common themes.
1. ‘Pester power’
Parents felt responsible for teaching their children about healthy eating, yet this was challenging with so much food marketed directly to children.
Such concerns of children’s ” pester power ” have arisen with concerted efforts by food corporations to market foods designed to maximise shareholder returns.
One mother of three pre-school and primary school-aged children talked about marketing “bad” foods to kids or placing them in reach:
[…] my 2-year-old is always like Bluey!!! […] You almost don’t want to take your kids to the supermarket […] Of course, my kids [are] gonna throw a tantrum – you’ve got a lollipop at his eye level.
2. Conflicting information
Parents today are swamped with misleading, confusing and often false information about food. This makes it challenging for parents to discern what’s healthy or unhealthy.
A mother of three primary school aged-children said:
You think you’re getting something that’s actually healthy because […] on the packaging, it says it’s healthy. So you trust it […] but it’s actually not.
3. Impossible binds
Social situations that normalise processed foods influence the foods children see as desirable and place parents in impossible binds. A father of three pre-school and primary-school aged children said:
My son used to love hummus. But everyone else around eats doughnuts or chips […] It’s a battle that we’re not gonna win.
In this context, many parents were concerned about pushing healthy food too hard. They worried this could have the opposite effect in the longer term. A mother of two primary school aged children said:
It’s a Catch-22 […] if I put Nutella toast in his lunch box, he’ll eat it. But then do I stay strong and not put shit in his lunch box, knowing that he’s going to be starving and be horrible at the end of the day? […] I don’t want to make it a huge thing because I worry about making food a problem.
Fostering compassion and government action
Dietitians advise parents not to pressure children about food. They say not to hide vegetables, and not to use food as a reward. Instead, they suggest eating together as a table, and persisting with offering healthy options.
Our findings suggest this advice falls flat if it doesn’t consider the commercial food environment. We suggest that more compassion, rather than shame, is needed towards parents about the food they provide.
Fussy eating can be a symptom of commercial interests in selling certain kinds of products. Recognising this may encourage people to demand governments do more to support children’s healthy eating.
Ultimately, food fussiness is much more than arguments at the dinner table. It is also a challenge that involves governments and the food industry.
We would like to acknowledge the following co-authors of the study mentioned in this article: Imogen Harper, Katherine Kenny, Holly A. Harris and Fiona Wright.
