Does picky eating reflect unresolved emotional issues?

jwoodie

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Aug 15, 2012
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Other than young children, almost all of the picky eaters I know seem to have unresolved emotional issues, often stemming from a feeling of lack of control over their lives. As a result, they refuse to eat (or even try) a wide variety of foods. It seems as though this represents one area of their lives they can control, as well as a source of comfort. Does this comport with your observations/experience?
 
Causes of Selective Eating Disorder (SED)
The causes of SED are unknown. Some experts theorize that it may be caused by a traumatic childhood experience such as choking on food with a certain texture, while others suggest that it may come from a fear of the unknown. Another theory is that it may be linked to an extreme sensitivity to the smell or texture of food that is often associated with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or autism. Dr. Andrew Weil of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine thinks this is a uniquely American problem tied to the custom of feeding children different food from adults. Our culture has popularized child-specific foods that are for the most part nutrient-poor concoctions of salt, sugar and fat. This may explain why most extreme picky eaters like to eat French fries and chicken fingers.

Neophobia Extremely Picky Eating | Montecatini
 
Once in elementary school, my parents took us most of the places they went. Neither I nor my brother ever ordered off the kid's menu.

We were also trained in etiquette, as we went to some pretty ritzy places and had to know how to behave. Hold chair for Mom, salad fork on the outside, etc.
 
Once in elementary school, my parents took us most of the places they went. Neither I nor my brother ever ordered off the kid's menu.

We were also trained in etiquette, as we went to some pretty ritzy places and had to know how to behave. Hold chair for Mom, salad fork on the outside, etc.
Nowadays training a kid in etiquette means not throwing your food or using your salad fork as a catapult.
 
Other than young children, almost all of the picky eaters I know seem to have unresolved emotional issues, often stemming from a feeling of lack of control over their lives. As a result, they refuse to eat (or even try) a wide variety of foods. It seems as though this represents one area of their lives they can control, as well as a source of comfort. Does this comport with your observations/experience?

No.

First, inflammatory diseases are on the rise, including those that cause gastrointestinal distress. So what you perceive as "picky eating" might actually be intolerance and/or allergy. In fact, one of the first signs of a severe food allergy is that the child has an aversion to the food. The body is trying to tell you something.

Now alongside that, there are a good number of people, it's true, that "hop on the bandwagon". And yes, that CAN be for issues of control. But not all control is bad, is it? Aren't drs always asking people to control their weight, blood pressure, and sugar levels?

Last, culture has a lot to do with this. You might call me a "picky eater" if I refuse to eat dog meat, but I'm still not eating dog meat. Or in Korea, some people like to eat live baby octopus that have been known to attach their suction cups to the roof of your mouth as you attempt to swallow in a last effort to save themselves. If you want to call me "picky" for being unwilling to try that, you go right ahead.
 
I have also found that most of my picky-eater friends are obese, therefor my comment on comfort food.
 
I think I may have selective eating disorder.

I select something off the menu and eat the hell out of it.
 
It's probably a bad idea to draw general conclusions about one's mental health based on a rather insignificant behavior pattern.

One of the things parents are supposed to do is to "force" children throughout their childhood to go out of the comfort zones to explore their capabilities and possibly enhance their lives. This often entails insisting that the child eat something unfamiliar, with the hope that the child will find some things that were at first repulsive, but they came to like eventually. Mine was Chinese food. So in some cases, being a Picky Eater may be a sign of mediocre parenting.

But OTOH, sometimes you just come to the conclusion that you know what you like, and when dining out you don't want to end up ordering something unfamiliar/recommended, only to find out that you plate is filled with something that you don't like at all.

When I travelled overseas and found myself eating by myself (which often happened), I always looked for a restaurant that was American or advertised "American" food. So shoot me.
 
Once in elementary school, my parents took us most of the places they went. Neither I nor my brother ever ordered off the kid's menu.

We were also trained in etiquette, as we went to some pretty ritzy places and had to know how to behave. Hold chair for Mom, salad fork on the outside, etc.


When I was a kidlin, the places we went to, you were lucky to have any fork, let alone worry about where the salad fork went. :)

I'm a lil ocd and detest trying new foods. I act like he's tryin to kill me off when James asks if I want to try out a new restaurant.
 
Once in elementary school, my parents took us most of the places they went. Neither I nor my brother ever ordered off the kid's menu.

We were also trained in etiquette, as we went to some pretty ritzy places and had to know how to behave. Hold chair for Mom, salad fork on the outside, etc.
Nowadays training a kid in etiquette means not throwing your food or using your salad fork as a catapult.


You said it.

My kids may have painted the cat with crisco or put a siblings shoe in the freezer with koolaid in it at home, but in public my kids were the best behaved children evah!

A little terror goes a long way in the teaching of good behavior!
 
If an octopus of any age attached itself to the inside of my mouth or throat, I would probably scream myself into a coma.
 
Other than young children, almost all of the picky eaters I know seem to have unresolved emotional issues, often stemming from a feeling of lack of control over their lives. As a result, they refuse to eat (or even try) a wide variety of foods. It seems as though this represents one area of their lives they can control, as well as a source of comfort. Does this comport with your observations/experience?

I hate peas, black eyed peas, Lima beans, and liver. Period. No, Dad, liver does not taste like chocolate cake.

Peas are deceptive. They are beautiful on the outside but deliver a special sort of nastiness on the inside.

The trauma...........

My son has a friend that eats hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza and junk food. We got him to eat the gyros at my son's birthday party but not the tzatziki sauce. His whole family eats like that. They don't venture into the unknown world of things like........asparagus, spinach, carrots etc.

I think it has less to do with unresolved emotional issues and more to do with exposure.
 

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