Your kids not eating their veggies? Well, thank goodness for ketchup

My parents are preparing a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for the extended family this year. They’re excited to have all their grand kids at the table, but also a bit nervous as they’re venturing far outside their Chinese food comfort zone. I’ve warned them, though, not to feel hurt if my 6-year-old daughter eats nothing but mashed potatoes.

That’s right, despite our vibrant heritage of Chinese-American gluttony dating back to the Ching dynasty, my family has been cursed with a picky eater.

There is no universally accepted definition of what makes a fussy eater, but most parents say they know it when they see it. Nutritionists and psychologists define “food neophobia” as the fear of trying new foods. It’s thought to be an evolutionary vestige from our Neanderthal days, when eating something new, particularly a plant, carried a risk of poisoning. Food neophobes will often reject a new food based on sight or odor alone, refusing to even taste it.

Neophobia starts at age 2, when the child becomes more mobile and hence less supervised, and usually ends at around age 6. Picky eaters, on the other hand, may try new foods but will regularly eat only a narrow range of items. Picky eaters gravitate toward carbohydrates and away from vegetables and protein sources. There is a great deal of overlap between food neophobia and picky eating, and many kids have both.

Scientists aren’t even sure of what causes some kids to be picky

eaters. Twin studies suggest that about two-thirds of picky eating is genetically determined, rather than environmental. Part of this may be due to a known genetic variation in the ability to taste bitterness in vegetables; those with higher sensitivity may be more likely to avoid veggies. Picky eating may also be associated with higher rates of anxiety. Regardless of the underlying cause, meal times can often deteriorate into a battle for control, further exacerbating the pickiness.

My daughter Sarah’s all-time record was being forced to sit two hours at the dinner table with an unwanted pork chop in her mouth. I finally gave up when she started nodding off. If she was going to choke on something in her sleep, I wanted it to at least be a vegetable. Otherwise, what would the neighbors say?

There are studies examining ways to diversify the picky eater’s diet. The French, naturally, are on the cutting edge of gastronomical research. Half of the 9-year-old kids at a Dijon school were assigned to a weekly 90-minute program to train their tender young palates. The sessions included lectures, cooking workshops and a field trip to a restaurant (though contrary to stereotype, no wine tastings).

The children were surveyed before and after the program, and were presented with unusual items to taste, such as leek sprouts and dried anchovies. Kids enrolled in the program were slightly more likely to sample the offerings. Of course, this study isn’t much help to those of us in the States, where schools are dealing with budget crunches by dropping frivolous subjects, like long division. So what’s a beleaguered parent to do? Here are some tips:

Don’t reward your kids for eating healthy food. Multiple studies have found that if you reward a child for eating something, she will consume more in the short term, but she’ll end up disliking and eating less of it in the future–the thought being, “If Mom has to give me a prize to eat this green bean, it must taste terrible.” Even verbal praise for consuming a particular food reduces a child’s liking for it.

Present healthy food as a reward. Rewarding behavior with food increases the desirability of that food. Note that this trick works best with the very young. One researcher who tried the old “eat your dessert, then you may eat your vegetables” ruse was unable to fool a single 4-year old.

Expose your child to the food you want him to eat. Then do it again. And again. And again. In fact, studies show you must present new food to a child a minimum of 10 times for him to finally accept it. One randomized trial had parents in the experimental arm present an unpopular vegetable (most often a bell pepper) to their child every day for 14 days. The parents were to encourage their child to taste it, but not to offer any reward for eating it. At the end of the two weeks, kids in the exposure group increased their liking and consumption of the vegetable.

Set a good example for your kids, and eat your veggies. This won’t be a surprise to anyone, but several studies have found that vegetable consumption in kids closely mirrors that of their parents.

If all else fails, talk to your pediatrician–preferably someone as nonjudgmental as my kids’ doctor. I became really concerned when Sarah weighed one pound less at her 4-year-old visit than she did at her 3-year-old one. I bemoaned her tuber-based diet, and asked for suggestions on how I could get her to eat her veggies. Her pediatrician’s answer? “Does she eat ketchup with her french fries? Ketchup counts.”

Ketchup counts? I’ve got Thanksgiving covered.

Stephanie Chan is an internist at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. Her views do not necessarily reflect those of the hospital, and reading this column is a sorry excuse for not consulting with your pediatrician. Read more at www.evidencebasedmommy.com.

This site is hosted by (click on the graphic for more information) kids