Picky eating in kids is mostly due to genetics, study says

Picky eating isn’t fun for any parent to deal with. And if you’ve been on that journey (or worse—if you’re on it right now), you know that one of the worst parts is the guilt, wondering if your behavior somehow encouraged your child to refuse to eat so many foods. Well, there’s good news on that front: A new study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry revealed that picky eating in kids largely comes down to genetics.

Researchers who investigated picky eating in kids from toddlers to teens found that the main driver behind the behavior was DNA, which explained 60% of pickiness in kids at 16 months old, and 74% of pickiness in kids from three to 13 years old.

The researchers also found that kids who are picky eaters don’t tend to show huge changes in their eating habits over time—probably because the behavior is driven by genetics. They found a slight peak in pickiness when kids were around seven years old, followed by a slight decline—but overall, pickiness stayed about the same between 16 months and 13 years of age.

“The main takeaway from this work is that food fussiness is not something that arises from parenting. It really does come down to the genetic differences between us,” said Dr. Zeynep Nas, a behavioral geneticist at University College London.

For the study, Nas and her team analyzed data from the UK’s Gemini study, which included nearly 2,500 sets of twins to explore the difference between nature and nurture and how genetics and the environment can influence growth. As part of the study, the twins’ parents filled out surveys about their kids’ eating habits when they were 16 months, three, five, seven, and 13 years old.

The researchers compared results between identical and non-identical twins. Because identical twins share 100% of their DNA, this helped them work out the genetic components at play in picky eating. They found that identical sets of twins often had more similar picky eating habits, which led them to the conclusion that DNA was a bigger factor in pickiness than previously thought.

However, that’s not to say that the children’s environment didn’t matter at all. Interestingly, the researchers also found that experiences the twins shared, such as foods they ate at home, could have a big influence on how picky they were—especially when they were young. The researchers noted that eating as a family together at home and offering a variety of foods to kids when they’re toddlers can help avoid picky eating behaviors, no matter the DNA involved.

“Genetics isn’t destiny,” Nas said.