Learning Objectives

After completion of this module students will be able to:

• Explore the theories behind the development of healthy, independent eaters.
• Explore behaviors associated with picky eating.
• Review strategies for measuring picky eating behavior.

Key Concepts

• Picky eating influences include feeding environments, peers, and genetics, parenting practices.
• Researchers have employed quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate picky eating theories; people don’t classify or define picky eating in the same way (before meal-time behaviors, during meal-time behaviors, food preferences, sensory preferences).
• Examples of parent behaviors that influence picky eating include parenting styles, modeling, and how parents perceive their children to be picky eaters.

Video Microlectures

• Video: Picky Eating
  Soo Lee, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Division of Nutritional Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Optional Readings

• Carruth, B. R., Ziegler, P. J., Gordon, A., & Barr, S. I. (2004). Prevalence of picky eaters among infants and toddlers and their caregivers’ decisions about offering a new food. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 104, 57-64.
• Lafraire, J., Rioux, C., Giboreau, A., & Picard, D. (2016). Food rejections in children: Cognitive and social/environmental factors involved in food neophobia and picky/fussy eating behavior. Appetite, 96, 347-357.