Toddler Picky Eaters Are Normal

Do you have a toddler who is a picky eater?

According to Sal Severe, PhD, author of How to Behave So Your Preschooler Will Too! (Viking, 2002), it's quite normal for toddlers to go through a finicky-eating phase for emotional, development, and physical reasons. Not surprisingly, 95 percent of picky eaters are between the ages of 2 and 4. Here are some of the reasons children often become picky eaters at this stage:

1. Little children thrive on routine and are sometimes fearful of new people or experiences. All those new tastes, textures, and smells can be overwhelming to a toddler, so he's less likely to try an unfamiliar food.

2. Refusing food is a toddler's way of declaring her independence. As your child becomes mobile and reaches more developmental milestones, she gains a sense of her own capabilities and starts to have more opinions about what she wants to do and where she wants to go. It's a common struggle between children and their parents -- kids at this age are testing the world around them, and the dinner table is no exception, notes Loraine Stern, MD, an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

3. Food fights allow a toddler to observe cause and effect. There's nothing more satisfying to a toddler than seeing what his parents will do when he asserts his will.

4. Some kids don't need much food. Your little one isn't a baby anymore. Babies grow at a tremendous pace, says Dr. Stern, but 1- to 3-year-olds grow more slowly. In fact, there are weeks when they don't grow at all. A toddler's appetite will vary according to that particular growth period -- sometimes she'll be hungrier and need more food than at other times. And since a toddler's stomach is small, she doesn't need much food to feel satisfied.

*Source: WholesomeToddlerFood.com

Toddler Picky Eaters Are Normal

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