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 "Fussy eating can really be a problem for the families," said lead
author Lisanne de Barse, of Erasmus MC-University Medical Center in
Rotterdam. "Dinners can become very difficult. There is also some
evidence that when a child continues to be a fussy eater there can
continue to be additional health problems.”
Previously, fussy eating has been tied to constipation, weight
problems and behavioral problems, the researchers write in the
Archives of Disease in Childhood.
"It’s not clear what influences fussy eating," de Barse told Reuters
Health. "What we knew is that there was a relationship between
mothers’ anxiety and depression during the child’s life and their
children’s fussy eating.”
But researchers didn't know whether anxiety and depression likely
led to fussy eating, or if fussy eating led to mothers' mental
health problems.
For the new study, the researchers used data from the Generation R
study, which followed pregnant women living in Rotterdam who
delivered their child between April 2002 and January 2006.
Mothers and fathers answered questionnaires about their anxiety and
depression during pregnancy and again when their children were three
years old. The parents then reported about their children's eating
behaviors at age three and four years.
The researchers had data on 4,746 mother and child pairs. They also
had data on 4,144 fathers.
By age three, about 30 percent of children were fussy eaters.
Overall, the researchers found, mothers' anxiety and depression
during and after pregnancy were tied to an increased risk of their
children being fussy eaters.
On average, for example, for every point a mother's score increased
on an anxiety scale that ranged from zero to four, her child's score
increased about one point on a fussy eating scale that ranged from
six to 30.
The researchers also note that the increased risk of fussy eating is
not limited to kids whose parents had clinically significant
anxiety, but also those with slightly elevated anxiety.
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“For clinicians, it’s important to consider that not only severe
anxiety and depressions symptoms of parents play a role in fussy
eating," de Barse said.
Fathers' anxiety during their kids' early childhood was also
associated with fussy eating, the researchers found.
"Both mother and father symptoms were related to picky eating," said
de Barse. "The only difference was father anxiety during pregnancy
wasn’t related to fussy eating.”
The researchers say their study suggests fussy eating is a result of
parental anxiety and depression since their data was collected
before the children were born.
De Barse cautioned that people shouldn't be too concerned if their
children are fussy eaters, because "fussy eating is usually a normal
phase of development. It usually peaks around two years and declines
during childhood."
However, there are some children in whom fussy eating persists.
"For parents themselves, when they experience anxiety or depression
they should report that to their doctors because it could have an
impact on themselves and their child," de Barse said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1SfICCW Archives of Disease in Childhood,
February 22, 2016.
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