Ah, my other child is following my picky eater!

Siblings are always going to copy each to some extent, and it is usually the behaviours we like the least that they follow the most!

If our fussy eater is the oldest it can make the situation even more tricky as they are modelling behaviour for the younger ones. Young children often look up to big bother or sister and want to copy what they are doing.

Why is your other child/children following the picky eater?

If we have a picky eater they are often being inadvertently rewarded. We are usually not meaning to reward them for their picky eating, but it often ends up like that.

1. They get to eat the cool stuff. Everyone else maybe wading through a stew, but the fussy eater has a plate of “high reward food” in terms of crunchy, salty, sweet, moreish.

2. If the food is not to their liking, they get to leave it. Meanwhile the rest of the family is eating things that are OK, but not favourites every time.

3. They get a LOT of attention. Yes, much of this is negative, but attention is attention.

4. We pander to them. Where we may get frustrated and have little patience for another child whinging about food, often when we have a fussy eater we do bend over backwards to make sure we have their nuggets or the “right”…