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Why your fussy eater can’t try foods

Judith Yeabsley
7 min readJul 31, 2023

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“I don’t like it!”
“But Sam you haven’t tried it”
“It’s horrible, I know I don’t like it”.

“Emily you’re going to love these nuggets”
Emily shrinks back like they are worms …

If these sound familiar, you are not alone. Children who are extremely fussy eaters are often so uncomfortable with new foods that they cannot even contemplate getting them anywhere near the mouth.

Depending on how selective your child is, this could be true of all foods, or a particular type of food. Perhaps they are able to tackle new dessert-type foods or new bread or carbohydrate options, but the thought of a new vegetable sends them into a panic.

Picky eating is experienced along a spectrum, so some children are going to find tasting foods okay, but they are not adding them to the menu. Or maybe they are doing the quick, nano nibble as a parent-pleasing exercise with zero intention of liking what they are tasting.

On the extreme end of fussy eating there are far more children that are unwilling to even taste new foods than you would imagine.

Experts around the world agree that 5–10% of ALL children have eating challenges so severe that they will not grow out of them without intervention.
This is backed…

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Judith Yeabsley
Judith Yeabsley

Written by Judith Yeabsley

The Confident Eater, author of Creating Confident Eaters.

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