Neophobia and What Parents Need To Know About Their Picky Eaters

Have you ever thought how your kids feel when they are made to eat food that they haven’t tried before? They get Neophobia! A new study is suggesting that youngster can experience anxiety and low self-esteem as adults by forcing into eating new foods. The resulting anxiety is called Neophobia.

The situation can get even more perverse when parents presume their kids as “picky eaters”, translating their frustration onto kids. And that’s bad—very bad.

They also explained that neophobic children have to confront anxiety and low self-esteem issues.

For two to three year-old kids, food rejection is a normal condition and continues till the age of five. But for neophobic kids, it can go up to their adulthood and into a habit. Parents have been advised to be patient with their “fussy eaters”.

Sample Neophobic children from the study revealed that their parents use a “stimulation” technique, where they are forced to eat new food over and over again. However, these parents do end up in failure after trying everything.

Neophobic kids have less confidence as compared to their peers and family and they are also poor performers at school. These children also consume lesser vegetables and fruits than neophilics (who like to consume new kinds of food).

One thing that researchers couldn’t find out was the difference in the body type of the two groups. This has been related to the availability of artificial supplements that can provide the necessary nutrition.

Recommendations

Well there are a few things that parents can do to make their neophobic kids feel better. Researchers recommend a more relaxed and pleasant atmosphere around these kids during meal preparation time. Also, letting them participate with the shopping of ingredients can tell you what else they would like to have for their meals.

The head of the report Edurne Maiz recommends parents to be very “patient” with their kids so to put a halt to the infant food Neophobia. Finally, parents should also act as good role models to positively reinforce their efforts in front of their kids.