What to Do If Your Child Is More Than Just a Picky Eater
Young children are picky eaters – this is a common and normal phenomenon. However, there are a few signs that your young child may be more than picky. If you think your child’s pickiness has gone to the extreme, but you don’t know exactly why, you can seek help. You may be worried that your child may develop an eating disorder as they get older, or you may have concerns about an underlying condition. Here are some things to look out for and take into account.
Signs Your Child Is More Than Just a Picky Eater
While young children can have quirks when it comes to their favorite foods, all the way to big tantrums when you’re serving off-brand chicken nuggets or tiny oranges that are too “dry”, there are some clues that there’s something. still in play, apart from the age-appropriate fussiness that most young children go through.
Some things to watch out for include:
- Gastrointestinal problems: abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea or constipation
- Vomiting after eating or vomiting when trying new foods
- Frequent bouts of suffocation
- Fear of choking or vomiting, sometimes causing them to be too afraid to eat.
- Significant weight loss or frequent “below curve” deviations on weight charts at examinations
- Refusal to eat even though logically they should be hungry
- Rejection of entire product categories (all combination products, all unpackaged products, all products of the same texture)
- Eating very slowly
- Inability to eat in front of others
You may be concerned about nutritional deficiencies due to your child’s selective diet, and not being able to eat as a family can cause tension. Your child may be irritable or have low energy because he is not getting enough nutritious food.
What to do next
The first step is not to try to force your child to eat, even if you, as a parent, may think that your main task is to support your child’s life from the means of subsistence. Make an appointment with your doctor – he will want to run a test to rule out any diseases or health conditions that may go away on their own or require medication.
They will also make sure there are no chronic or other medical problems. Some, but not all, medical conditions that can affect a child’s ability to eat normally may include:
- Diabetes
- Crohn’s disease
- celiac disease
- tongue tie
- Crayfish
- Food allergy or intolerance
You may be directed to rule out any of these conditions. If something happens, your doctor will tell you how to administer or treat from there.
If your doctor determines that your baby’s feeding problems are not medically related, they may progress to developmental or psychological reasons. Many children have sensory problems with food, which may or may not lead to a diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder such as anxiety, autism, sensory processing disorder, or food restriction avoidance disorder (ARFID), an anorexia-like mental condition that does not include problems with body image.
If your child has a mental disorder that interferes with eating, you may be referred to a variety of specialists. Nutritionists are a special type of therapist who help families deal with these issues. For children with sensory issues or autism, an occupational therapist is often trained in feeding therapy and can help your child get used to different textures and types of foods. Children with food anxiety may benefit from a therapist who can talk to or play with them while they work with some of their food fears.
It also helps you rethink your own thinking.
Our adult world is saturated with a diet culture that is hard to escape, even when we think about our young children and their growing bodies. However, your caregivers will help you articulate your thinking and use words to help your child best bring food back into their lives in a healthy and holistic way, without fear or shame.
Keep in mind that while it can be difficult to cook dinner for your family only to have one child literally throw up in disgust, they are not doing it to piss you off. Changing what “family lunch” looks like right now to help your child create lifelong healthy eating habits and help change the culture around food and mental illness, set your kids up for a happier and more balanced relationship with food as they grow up .