Investigating the prevalence and risk factors of picky eating in a birth cohort study

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of childhood picky eating (PE) and to identify risk factors associated with different PE trajectories using data from the Growing up in Scotland research survey. PE was operationalised using three items across three study sweeps, at ages 2, 5 and 10 years respectively. We found 13.5 % of children with PE at age 2, 22.2 % at age 5, and 6.4 % at age 10. From these, we defined three PE categories: transient PE in early childhood (23.3 %), persistent PE into late childhood (3.7 %) and PE absent (73.0 %). Using multinomial logistic regression, we investigated associations between child and family characteristics and transient and persistent PE, adjusting for potential confounders. Various factors were associated with increased risk of persistent pickiness, including mothers who smoked during pregnancy and children whose mothers reported feeding challenges at 9-12 months. These findings support the view that PE behaviours are common and tend to remit by adolescence although a small number of children are at risk of experiencing longer term problems. Families of children who are exposed to such risks may benefit from preventative interventions.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder; Child; Childhood eating behaviours; Fussy eating; Longitudinal study; Picky eating.