Why children refuse new foods

Do you wonder why your child refuses a food that you KNOW they would love if they just tried it?

Are you left gobsmacked that they turn down the donut/popsicle/biscuit, even though EVERYONE loves them?

I came across an interesting piece of research over the weekend that asked children why they refused foods, and their answers provided some fascinating insight.

As part of research for my PhD I have been reading science papers from all over the world. I of course, concentrate on studies that look at picky eating in children, however, I also read research into supporting children to eat more widely and well and other areas that may be of use for fussy eaters.

One of the areas I’ve been focusing on recently is food neophobia.

Neophobia is the fear of something new and therefore, food neophobia is the refusal to taste a new food.

There is a developmentally normal stage of food neophobia that occurs in the toddler years that prevents children from eating things that may be dangerous. However, for some children this stage seems exaggerated and/or does not seem to go away.

There is some debate among scientists about what is picky eating and what is neophobia, but many (and I agree) like to think of neophobia as part of picky eating.

So why do children refuse new foods?

Much of the research into children’s picky eating, particularly for younger children, is done via their parents. Parents fill in questionnaires, answer questions etc.

However, I found a study that asked 3- to 5-year-olds, why they thought other children may refuse foods and why they themselves refuse foods.

Absolutely fascinating!

In the study, the researchers created a book about ‘Paul the picky eater’ who refused to eat new foods. The preschool teacher of the children in the study read the book to the class and then asked a series of questions to explore why they thought Paul did not eat new foods and also to explain why there may be challenges for them eating new foods.

The researchers sat at the back of the class and recorded the children’s answers.

There were some really strong themes that stood out.

Why did the children think Paul refused the new food?

The first part of the questions involved the fictional character Paul and why he wouldn’t eat the new food. I have listed the responses in order of popularity:

1. He knows he does not like it
2. He has a lack of experience or knowledge of the food
3. It has a bad taste or smell
4. It’s green
5. He doesn’t want to eat it
6. A variety of other answers

The top result when talking about Paul was that he ‘knows he doesn’t like it’. Which is interesting as it’s a new food, so logically Paul has no idea whether he does or doesn’t like it.

However, as most parents of fussy eaters know, children are experts at making snap decisions about new foods.

What was interesting was that many of the children assumed that was the case for Paul.

And these were not children who were necessarily picky eaters, they were just a class of regular preschoolers.

They however, assume Paul is unable to eat the food as he doesn’t like it even though he hasn’t tried it.

The second most popular answer about Paul’s inability to eat the new food was that he wasn’t familiar with it.

The children assumed that something that was out of his comfort zone was not going to be something that he was able to eat.

Why do the children refuse new foods themselves?

In the research, the second part of the questions involved the children explaining why they wouldn’t eat a new food.

Again, I have listed first the answer that was most popular:

1. Physical reasons (52%) which included throwing up, feeling sick etc.
2. Tasting bad (11%)
3. Contaminated (8%)
4. Scared (7%)
5. Looks yucky (6%)
6. Other reasons

The biggest reason by far for the children refusing foods (who remember were not necessarily fussy eaters) was not that they did not like the food, but fear of bad consequences.

The children overwhelmingly felt that a new food may not be good for them as it may make them feel bad, taste bad, may be contaminated or was scary.

I feel like this is great information for parents of fussy eaters:

New foods = bad.

Why, because there are likely to be negative outcomes from eating it.

This of course suggests lots of ways that we can support a child to eat new foods and do it more comfortably.

What can parents do to support their child to eat new foods?

Many of the families I work with have children who struggle to eat new foods and one of the main hurdles is just having them taste it.

As you saw from the research above this is probably due to a) the assumption they will not like the food and b) the concern that the food will be awful in some way.

Although the study was done on young children, many of those same thoughts become fixed and so hold true for older children too.

So how can parents help their child?

1. Modelling. This is particularly important for young children as research shows that young children gauge what is safe and what is not by watching the adults around them.

This means it’s really important to model eating foods for your child (and doing it pleasurably) so they see that the foods you want them to eat are not unpleasant or scary or cause nasty side effects!

Even if your child is older, they are still going to feel more comfortable about a food if it is something that they see others eating without ill effects.

2. Building comfort. Seeing and believing are often two different things! One of the most important ways to support your child to eat new foods is by helping them build their own level of comfort with that food.

If a food seems scary or likely to make you feel unwell/uncomfortable, you are sensible to refuse to eat it.

Therefore, new foods are unlikely to be eaten straight away by a child who is hesitant around food.

Instead, it may take time to gently show them that the new food is manageable.

There are many ways to do this:

i) Modelling – as discussed above, role modelling eating yourself.

ii) Exposure – repeated opportunities to see a food and get used to the way it looks, smells etc. Think of this as you would a book. We have to read books over and over for a child to learn how to read.

iii) Interaction – gently enabling your child to interact with new foods. This may be through shopping, gardening, cooking or play, for example.

iv) Scaffolding – finding ways to support a child to eat a new food in ways that are less scary. Perhaps this means that the food is eaten with a favourite food, for example, pear dipped in chocolate sauce.

v) Change – making the new food seem easier to eat. For example, cooking it in a different way so it is more crunchy or sweeter.

As you can see from the research into why young children refuse new foods, much of it is a gut reaction with no factual base behind it.
The fear based-response – it’s better to say no than say yes – is common to many fussy eaters and becomes more and more entrenched as they ‘practice’ it.

It is, therefore, important that as parents we continually work to counter this automatic response.

Much of this is done through gently and consistently showing them that new foods may not actually be as scary as they think!

If you have a child who automatically refuses new foods have you found anything that works well that you can share with other parents?

*Research study – Johnson et al. (2018).

Judith, MA Cantab (Cambridge University), MSc Psychology (first-class honours), is working on a PhD, is an AOTA accredited picky eating advisor and internationally certified nutritional therapist. She works with 100+ families every year resolving fussy eating and returning pleasure and joy to the meal table.

She is also mum to two boys and the author of Creating Confident Eaters and Winner Winner I Eat Dinner. Her dream is that every child is able to approach food from a place of safety and joy, not fear.

Learn more about Judith here: https://theconfidenteater.com/about/