One of the issues that most worry about fathers and mothers has to do with the food of children. That eat well and everything is one of the greatest pleasures of any parent. However, there is not always so. Many very selective children when deciding what they want is inclusion to refuse a new food. It is what is called food neopobia that, from the etymological point of view, significance ‘myiedo to new foods’.
Daniel Escobar, Dietitian-Nutritionist accredited in Pediatric Nutrition, Member of the Spanish Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Specialization Group in Pediatric Nutrition, a buyer helps us this ‘closed Cerrazó Infantil’ Test tion.
What is food neopobia?
Food neopobia contemplates selective or restrictive behavior «that is with resistance or rejection of testing certain foods or food groups, different from those that are known or with which dynamics species have already been established,» explains Escobar.
Several studies from an evolutionary perspective relate that negative attitude towards the new with intuitive protection to the unknown. «That fear of trying new foods that related to a myow to be dangerous for the life of who ingests them,» says Escobar. That evolutionary inheritance would partly be the child’s food neopobia that leads to rejecting green beans or a fish fillet and that so much baffles parents. But it is not the only one.
Causes of Food Neofobia
This phenomenon is conditioning for various social, environmental and behavioral factors. The expert highlights the followers:
- Individual preferences. Determined by the tastes of each child towards sensitive-perceptual aspects of food: colors, aromas, textures, temperatures, appearance and form of present.
- Neurological aspects and mental individual health. Among them, the presence of autistic spectrum disorder or other mental health problems, such as anxity.
- Past experiments. Positive or negative experiments in relation to food intake or the ability to obtain a plate through food.
- Progenitory behavior. The expert refers to the pressure of the parents so that the little comma, the lack of stimulus and/or affection during the meals, the presence of neopophobia of the parents or the distinction of interpretation the signs of hunger/satiety delineum.
- Influence of the environment. The fact that a child see natural foods or maition reluctance towards others is related to the fact that parents or other people close consumes use food in a regular basis (Eastern children naturally eat foods that are not western of the main caregivers, habits in children’s school …
- Food availability. If the child sees that environment there are always apples or mandarins, they are present a pleasant appearance and are consumed regularly, it is more likely that consumable reliefs than if Lichis or other less frocking fruit are offered.
How Food Neofobia evolves
In children
Food neopobia in children between 2 and 3 years is a natural process within maturation and growth. General, it usually sends as the varity of food and form of present of them grow and expands, ”says Escobar.
Regularly, it disappears spontaneously over 7 years.
In adolescents
Food neopobia in adolescents responds to different mechanisms. In these ages, the way of relating to food is different. For children it is a way to «discover the world around them.» However, «in adolescents the relationship with food has implicit a social perspective that, often, usually accompanies a dimension of acceptance with the environment and susijos,» says Escobar.
Here the group pressure enters: if everyone and chia at yogurt or take Quinoa with the salad, the teenager is likely to do so to feel one more. If not, there is more likely to be food again.
Food and TCA neopobia
Although it is not always directly transformed into an eating disorder (TCA), «food neophyr can contribute to restrictive or avoidant food patterns and a little varied diet, which could increase the risk of developing this type of disorders in the future,» says the expert.
How to overcome food neophabia
Daniel Escobar facilitates the following tips for parents:
- Patience. The parents, the degree to have, that their child also has, voluntary and adapt to the individual processes that call him an atmosphere or disregard certain foods.
- Repeated and varied exhibition. It is recommending to vary the form of presentation of food and, if necessary, repeat the exposure of a group of food or food in particular.
- Eat like a pleasant experience. Improve the expense of the Food Medium Activities aimed at the familiarization of the food food food through respect and tranquility.
- Interdisciplinary advice. In the most problematic cases, it is no longer possible to advise for a specialized dietitian-nutritionist (if he is in the pediatric age, a professional expert in said population), a professional health professional (recommended psychiatry and psychology binomial), in addition to another medical professional specialized in neurodevelopment.
Some environments relate food neophobia with breastfeeding. The food ingested by the mother modifies the taste of Matna’s milk. In addition, the aromas of the kitchen also reach the child, which ends them perceiving them as safe and pleasant. «There is clear evidence between the early experiences around the perinatal moment (before birth and a postpartum month) and its crucial relationship in the formation of food preferences, favoring the diversity of sensory experiences,» says the expert.
Specifically, in what respects breast milk, “we must contemplate that dynamic unions, whose composition of aromabphic compounds depends on several maternal factors (diet, cannon culture treatment, life habit), love to condition them prefers them prefer and prefer foods When complementary feeding begins ”.
Neophobia and high capacted
Do you reject more foods that children with a coefficient mayor? Daniel Escobar states that the evidence that relates both surgery is very which. It indicates a single study that contemplates a systematic review of the giftedness and the possible correlate of neurodevelopmental disorders in children and adolescents. “There are no clear hay data about the gifting or high capacity and other environments of the development due to a bias derived from the diagnostic methods
The Aldi Council
Children are people, smaller than adults, but with aversions. To facilitate the incorporation of new foods do not forget to cease a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere during meals
Daniel Escobar. Dietitian-Nutritionist, member of the Spanish Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and collaborator of the Pediatric Nutrition Specialization Group. It specializes in maternal-child health and has a wide experience in nutrition of the healthy and pathological child. Expert in food and nutrition and expert expert in clinical neutrics and diet. He is currently a collaborator in the Department of Public and Maternal-Infantile Health (Pediatrics) of the Complutense University of Madrid.
