The Psyche of a Picky Eater

Expectant mothers, among other pleas, beg God for a child that eats everything! If untreated, the malaise of having to deal with a picky eater is a one way ticket to insanity for the poor harried mother. But spare a thought for the “perpetrator” .

Food is something forced down their hatch every 3 hrs  given different names, “eat your breakfast, its time for your midmorning snack, have a glass of juice so u can sustain upto lunch, leave what ever you are doing and sit on the table for lunch, yes the vegetable looks like an mini tree and tastes bitter but its good for you, its tea time…dinner time..bedtime…”

What a child would like to hear is “ it’s a new day, start with playing your unfinished game… now its time to read that novel you were lost in…  your best friend will help you spend time before the whole gang comes over and then you’ll can start some rambunctuous play…….”

Throw into this equation a child who does not view food as an important enough interruption and you have the makings of a Mahabharat.

To understand your child and its habits, start with examining your equation with food. As a child, how open were you to trying new foods? We view our children from an adult’s perspective, age and experience has given us a different outlook but consider that your childhood information  has already been decoded into child’s DNA. You might feel, oh I ate everything except xyz. In that case, expect that your child may avoid not only xyz but abc as well. The case of kids being “sava ser to your ser” ie one step ahead of you.

The last 20 years in India there has been rapid liberalisation in family life. End of Autocratic rule of adults.There is scope for freedom of expression and open discussion. Although this made the world a happier place, not so for the mother trying to serve unappetising fare however nutritionally beneficial. The ladies of yore served up food and it was eaten, no questions asked, no other options offered. How easy they had it.Today, a child is allowed to express a dislike for a certain food and can get away with not eating it.These changing dynamics have given a boost to the community of picky eaters and strategies need to be formulated to deal with this endemic.

Most importantly, notwithstanding social changes, introduction of different cuisines in our diet, genetic predisposition towards certain food, we need to understand that the lil “perpetrator” is facing his/her upheavals in life. As in adults, some overeat to combat stress, some shun food. Our picky eater falls in the latter category. “My stomach does not feel right” is the common refrain. GERD, acidity, bloating, flatulence etc are very real symptoms to known irritants such as food intolerances as well as unknown ones such as underlying stress.

Give the poor kid a break!

Coming up next- Strategies for mums to tackle picky eaters. Wait for it.