chodder
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Registered: Jul 2003
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They push their peas around the plate, turn up their noses at chicken parmesan and won't even consider broccoli. But is picky eating among young children really something to be concerned about?
Apparently not, say Finnish researchers who found few meaningful differences between the diets of children described by their parents as poor eaters and those of other children.
"Our findings suggest that even though parental complaints of poor eating in children are very common, there appears to be no reason for serious concern," Susanna Saarilehto of the University of Turku and her colleagues wrote. The study is in the current issue of The Journal of Pediatrics.
In the study, parents of almost 500 5-year-olds were asked about their children's eating habits. Children whose parents said they ate too little "sometimes" or "often" were classified as poor eaters (the definition included picky eaters and children who did not eat a lot).
Parents were then asked to record everything their children ate over a four-day period.
Poor eaters tended to be a little shorter and weigh a little less than the others. But they also tended to have been smaller at birth, raising the possibility that they simply required less food. In fact, when food intake was adjusted for weight, it was about the same for each group.
One difference was found between the groups: the poor eaters got more of their calories from snacks than from meals. Still, the researchers said, at that age, children generally adjust their eating over the course of a day so they take in the right amount of food.
Source : New York Times
------------------------------------------------------------>Respectfully,|
------------------------------------------------------------>-Cho--------^ |
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03-12-2004 06:04 PM
