If your child was a cat they’d call him finicky.
Scientifically speaking, terrible twos aside (and it appears we are, at just under 18 months, in the terrible twos according to Dr. Karp) a new study shows that childrens’ fear of new food is hereditary. So if your child is just an all around picky eater has a discerning palate, rest assured it’s not entirely your fault.
In a large UK study of twins, researchers found that nearly 80% of a child’s reluctance to try new foods is inherited. Both humans and animals have a reluctance to try new foods. This reluctance, which scientists call “food neophobia” had an evolutionary advantage as unknown foods could potentially be toxic. Of course now that food is usually safe to eat this neophobia usually leads to kids avoiding vegetables and avoiding vegetables is unfortunately an evolutionary disadvantage. So don’t give up. Offering foods repeatedly may wear a kid down. The more a child sees you eating foods the more likely she’ll be to try them later.
A few words of advice from the article at WebMD
“Research in laboratory and real-world settings has shown that neophobia for specific foods can be reduced,” Cooke and colleagues note. “New foods can become familiar, and disliked foods liked, with repeated presentation.”
The researchers warn that bribing kids to try new foods and punishing them for not eating are strategies that fail to achieve the intended effect.
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