Understanding the Picky Eater

Good news: Picky eating is NOT permanent.

Despite having a boundless universe of food available to us, there is no such thing as a universal food. Finding a meal that will please everyone is more challenging than ever and the number of tips and tricks offered to get kids to eat a more varied diet can be difficult to navigate. Picky eaters are not a new phenomenon.

One thing is certain, though: our appetites are learned behaviors. With enough enthusiasm and patience, it is possible to change the foods we crave.

So, what exactly is picky eating, anyway?

Much of what we know about the dining habits of children stems from a study conducted in Chicago orphanages in the 1930s by Dr. Clara Davis. Dr. Davis studied 15 children over the course of 4 and a half years, during which she recorded every single thing that was eaten, spilled, or shunned at every meal, in addition to basic health records.

The results suggested that children are naturally quite adventurous eaters.

In her book, First Bite: How We Learn to Eat, Bee Wilson notes that “Without any preconceived notions about what foods were suitable for them, the babies showed enthusiasm for everything from bone marrow to turnips. They didn’t realize they weren’t supposed to like beets or organ meats. All of them tried all of the thirty-four foods, except for two who never attempted lettuce and one who shunned spinach.”

The Wisdom of the Body (and Tiny Spoon!)

In her lectures, Dr. Davis often spoke of the “wisdom of the body,” meaning that children will inherently choose a nutritious and balanced diet based on what their body craves, given a diverse and nutritious set of options.

But with our current foodways, there is a tremendous amount of choices available to us and it is difficult to know where to even begin.

This is where Tiny Spoon Chef can come to your rescue.

We are happy to come up with diverse, exciting, and accessible meals that keep your fridge full and give your choosiest eaters all the tools they need to make smart picks.

Possibilities Over Permanence

The greatest obstacle, Wilson observes, is that most selective eaters (and their parents) view this condition as permanent and immutable. But this is not the case. It is certainly possible to become a person who craves salads and plant-centric meals. Whether it’s the Mayo Clinic, or Parents.com, or our very own Tiny Spoon Chefs, the plan of attack is fairly consistent: be fun, be creative, and don’t give up hope.

The way to teach a child to eat well is to lead by example with enthusiasm and patience.

We learn to like new foods simply by trying them, and we are thrilled by the opportunity to open up new worlds for your families through food.