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By Mickey Mellen | June 15, 2012
Picky Eating: 
a symptom versus a disorder

“Picky eating” is normal for children two to six years of age. When picky eating habits continue beyond these years or lead to nutritional deficits these “habits” may actually be a disorder or a symptom of something else.

Picky eating as a disorder occurs when the child’s rejection of foods leads to an inadequate variety of food in the diet or volume of food (Dovey, 2006). Successful management of this disorder heavily depends on caregiver input. There are five main keys to managing picky eating as a disorder:

  1. Exposure:
    • Make nutritious foods readily available
    • Provide foods in appropriate volumes (a serving should be similar to the size of the child’s palm)
    • Be persistent in exposing nutritious foods; allow 1-15 exposures befor giving up on any particular food
      • Keep a log or spreadsheet of times the child is exposed to a food
  2. Shaping:
    • Expand food option by adding foods with similar properties to the child’s diet
      • If the child likes the crunchy property of Goldfish, try introducing granola or a fibrous cereal.
  3. Modeling:
    • Expose yourself and the child’s peers to the foods you expect your child to eat– use peer pressure to your advantage!
    • Offer calm, pleasant mealtimes
    • Encourage the child even if you yourself do not enjoy the food
  4. Rewards:
    • Do not frequently use food to calm or as a reward
      • Give small and delayed rewards for novel foods
  5. Limits:
    • Too much of a good thing can be just as harmful to a child’s nutrition
      • 16-24 oz of milk/ day
      • 4-6 oz of juice/ day
      • save water for children over 12 months
    • Minimize the amount of junk food snack available
    • Have regularly scheduled mealtimes and snacktimes
      •  Mealtimes should range from 20-30 minutes
      • Children should have three meals and two snacks a day
REMEMBER: It is the parent or caregiver’s job to provide the food and the child’s job to eat the food!

If you as the parent or caregiver have followed these steps and the picky eating persits, your child’s habits may be a symptom of another underlying issue. If this is the case or you would like more information, please contact us at 770-209-9826 or visit our website at https://www.pediaspeech.com/.

Posted in picky eating