Fussy Eating
As a Naturopath, I see many clients with fussy eating. And then was blessed with my own little 3 fusspots who reaaaaaalllllyyyyy challenged my beliefs around how to navigate fussy eating in children!
Fast forward 11 years, and I am still learning, but the biggest realisation I have had, is that every persons journey is different. Our relationship with food is complex and multi-layered! So I have outlined some foundations that I begin with in fussy eating. Things you can begin with and hopefully most things are resolved, and if not, we have plenty of strategies to unravel further!
The average intake of fussy eating, is the child will eat less then 30 foods. Extremely fussy eating is where they are eating less then 20 foods. Or you may enjoy the shit show of them loving some foods and then totally refusing them a week later and their food intake dwindles away!
Why is fussy eating worth exploring?
Fussy eating is the beginning of a relationship with food that is life long. Food is literally our life blood, we need it to survive, and we need it to thrive. The way our body forms, our hormones are made, our brain functions, is all based around our food intake.
Why do we have such an issue with fussy eating now?
I think fussy eating is multi layered, but here are just some of my beliefs;
INTRODUCING SOLIDS: When our parents were growing up, they were introduced to foods off the parents plate, mashed up in to a paste and offered off a finger or fork. Fast forward to the 21st century, and children are now offered rice cereal and purees as first foods. These food groups have the same textures and flavours all through, so the child learns to expect the same flavours and textures all the way through. They become the childs ‘safe foods’. And when bread, pasta and rice is introduced, it mimics the same bland taste, texture and consistency as the purees. Also, these bland packaged foods, lack the nutrients that babies need to make healthy taste buds. If taste buds are not developed properly, food either lacks flavour or has too much flavour. Their nervous system never learns to process textured foods on the tongue and things like crunchy and chewy foods become unbearable for children and will lead to a heightened gag reflex.
GUT BACTERIA: These early introduced foods lack the fibre the gut need to make healthy bacteria. Most of our food preferences are actually driven by the bacteria that lives in the gut. So if we are only feeding the same puree loving bacteria, that’s all the child will crave! We used to have abundant bacteria all over the place, on average we had 6000 species of bacteria in our gut. Now we have around 2000. We have lost diversity and this diversity, creates our cravings for different foods. We have antiobiotcs all over our food and surfaces, we no longer spend much time outdoors where bacteria is abundant, we have antibacterial sprays and detergents all over the home and crockery. All of these things kill of our good bacteria and leave behind the bad guys. The good guys love fruit and veg, the bad guys love sugar and carbohydrates. The more you feed the bad guys, the more they drive the cravings.
THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT: I remember mixing up my eldest daughters rice cereal, sitting her in the bumbo next to me whilst I pottered around the kitchen spoon feeding her rice. We would put her to bed and then cook our dinner. I was rushing around hurrying her up, mindlessly feeding her food and cleaning up the mess. There was no connection with eating a meal together. There was no presence or joy. It was just a tick and flick! NEXT! We are designed to share meals together. Our children cant learn to sit and enjoy a meal by being told it. I witness my Son sitting on the table sharing food with my Mum. Its amazing how much he will eat and try when he just hangs with her, picks at her plate, she is present with them and he is relaxed. Try it next time and see what you notice in them, and your self.
I believe these are just SOME of the reasons why we are navigating such fussy in this generation. What else have you noticed about it?
Now where can we begin to repair our childs relationship with food?
There is so much noise in this space from well intentioned proffesionals, but so much of it can feel really unachievable to most parents who know their kids just wont even try different things. So here are some things I often begin with, to expand the eating before we start cleaning it all up and making it more healthy.
Choose their favorite foods and expand the flavors for 8 weeks. If they love yoghurt, fruit, sausages, chips, pasta, biscuits ect ect, introduce all different colors, textures, shapes and flavors. Yep seriously. Heres your permission slip to play around with widening their tolerance of ‘safe foods’ before we explore introducing new foods. It gets their taste buds and sensory input expanding. We expand their intake and exploration with food, before we start to reduce the processed foods and increase the healthy foods. Make it fun, think cute lil dino pastas, watermelon cut in stars, a different flaoured biscuit paired with their favourite one. Always intro a new food with the current safe foods like on a grazing platter your sharing and just start with one tiny piece. It might take a few days until they are willing to try it, don’t get disheartened and don’t make a big deal over it. Actually don’t even mention it to them lol. I served my younger a julienned piece (size of a matchstick) piece of carrot for a week! We are now consuming carrots lol!
White food lovers? Bread, pasta, rice, potato? I also love these (who doesn’t really) but they don’t really pack a nutritional punch! But we can prepare them a little differently to make them a healthier option. Freeze bread and toast from frozen. Cook and cool your pasta, rice and potatoes and then heat them up and eat them. This changes them from being a ‘carbohydrate’ to a ‘resistant starch’ which is much better for gut health.
Sit down and share food with your little ones. Food is supposed to be eaten in community but as a busy mum, I know it can feel like a tick and flick, one step closer to bed time! Aim for even just once a week, where you sit down and share something together, so it becomes a point of connection and joy. My little fusspot toddler will try far more things if we are sharing a bowl of it together or all having a pick plate for dinner!
Wont eat veggies but loves fruit? Great, just expand their fruit intake. Oh the sugar I hear you say? They burn it off in 2 seconds running around like Ninjas, the fiber in fruit feeds the good bacteria in their guts that will then drive food cravings to change. If your babe wont eat any veggies, aim for 4 serves of fruit a day for a few weeks and then begin to introduce one lil veggie stick or pea at a time!
This is just the tip of the iceberg of where we can go to address your little ones food intake. If you feel like you need a more individualised approach, you can book in here. If you find these stratgeies helpful, please share with your friends and you might also like my ‘Heatlhy TrolleyTour’ to dive in to making their food options even healthier.
Be well, you got this. Charmaine xxx