Your Picky Eater May be at Risk of Depression and Anxiety

Is your child a picky eater? Then there may be something more at play. Scientists have found that severe picky eating often coincides with serious childhood issues such as depression and anxiety that may need intervention.

More than 20 percent of children between the ages of two and six are picky eaters. Of them, about 18 percent are moderately picky and of the remaining children, about 3 percent are severely picky. In fact, they're so restrictive in their food intake that it limits them the ability to eat with others.

"The question for many parents and physicians is: when is picky eating truly a problem?" said Nancy Zucker, lead author of the new study, in a news release. "The children we're talking about are not just misbehaving kids who refuse to eat their broccoli."

Children with both moderate and severe selective eating habits showed symptoms of anxiety and other mental conditions. The researchers also found the kids who were picky eaters were nearly twice as likely to have increased symptoms of generalized anxiety at follow-up intervals during the study.

"These are children whose eating has become so limited or selective that it's starting to cause problems," said Zucker. "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."

Children with moderate picky eating showed an increased likelihood of formal psychiatric diagnosis. In addition, children with severe picky eating were more than twice as likely to have a diagnosis of depression.

"There's no question that not all children go on to have chronic selective eating in adulthood," said Zucker. "But because these children are seeing impairment in their health and well-being now, we need to start developing ways to help these parents and doctors know when and how to intervene."

The findings are published in the journal Pediatrics.

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