Food rejection behaviors such as picky eating are of concern for many parents and attempts to increase
healthy food intake can cause distress at mealtimes. An important limitation in most of the picky eating
studies is that they cover few characteristics of picky eating behaviors and use limited measures of food
intake. The objective of this study was to explore the associations between picky eating, child eating
characteristics, and food intake among toddlers 12e47.9 months old (n ¼ 2371) using data from the 2008
Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study (FITS). Logistic regression was used to examine associations between
demographic and feeding characteristics and picky eater status. Differences in food group intake between
picky and non-picky eaters were analyzed. Picky eaters were more likely to be neophobic, texture
resistant, and to eat only favorite foods, In addition, the parents of picky eaters tend to offer new food a
greater number of times than those of non-picky eaters before deciding that the child does not like it.
Picky eaters showed significant lower intakes of eggs, burritos/tacos/enchiladas/nachos and sandwiches
than non-picky eaters. Picky eaters consumed fewer vegetables from the “other vegetables” category and
less raw vegetables than non-picky eaters. Neophobia, eating only favorite foods and difficulties with
texture are all important characteristics of picky eaters which need to be integrated in studies measuring
picky eating behaviors. Food intake of picky eaters differs only slightly from non-picky eaters. Because
picky eating is a major parental concern, feeding strategies and advice related to the relevant characteristics
of picky eating behavior need to be developed and assessed for their effectiveness.
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license