Fussy eating in children linked to anxiety

Many parents make a conscious effort to ensure their children eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, but a new study has revealed that youngsters who are fussy eaters are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety in later life.

Researchers at Duke Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, set out to investigate the relationship between selective eating and psychological problems such as anxiety, depression and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.


For the study, they recruited 917 children aged between 24 and 71 months. The parents of each child were then interviewed, answering questions on their youngster's eating habits, possible psychiatric symptoms, functioning and home environment variables.It was found that children with moderate or severe levels of selective eating were twice as likely to develop symptoms of anxiety than those who were not fussy eaters.


Moderate and severe levels of picky eating were also associated with increased symptoms of depression, generalised and social anxiety.

Nancy Zucker, lead researcher of the study, said: 'These are children whose eating has become so limited or selective that it's starting to cause problems.'Impairment can take many different forms. It can affect the child's health, growth, social functioning and the parent-child relationship. The child can feel like no one believes them, and parents can feel blamed for the problem.'Because these children are seeing impairment in their health and wellbeing now, we need to start developing ways to help these parents and doctors know when and how to intervene.'

The researchers added that selective eating in children could be due to having bad experiences with certain foods, which could lead to them developing anxiety when being forced to eat them or try new foods.New interventions should be set in place to help these children improve their eating habits, they conclude.

The study has been published in the journal Pediatrics.ADNFCR-554-ID-801796310-ADNFCR

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