— Amanda Waddell

Oh, it's a fantastic question and I actually think that this question is where a lot of feeding becomes derailed for families. And the reason for this is, is that, um, during the toddler years, so it can be anywhere from sometimes they say 12 to 15 to 18 months. But I find it can actually be even beyond that two to three years of age. And even for some kids into the school age years, um, there is a developmentally normal phenomenon called neo phobia and it translates to fear of new foods. And developmentally, or you know, through our evolution, it was thought to be protective. 'cause you think about toddlers are kind of rowing all around. They're crawling on the floor, they're walking all over the place, and if you've ever seen a toddler, they put everything in their mouth. And so as a form of sort of evolutionary protection, um, they develop a fear of new foods. And so I cannot tell you the number of parents that said at six months introducing solids was such a dream because they everything that we put in front of them and then all of a sudden at 15, 18, 24 months of age, they learn the word no. And one of the things that happens is that I think that what, when parents experience this, you know, rejection of foods, they think that there's something wrong, that they're doing something wrong or that there's something wrong with their child that all of a sudden they're rejecting these new foods. And I think one of the places where pediatricians could do a better job is with anticipatory guidance. So meaning that before that developmental stage hits, we talk to parents like, you're, you might notice that your child is gonna start to refuse foods, not want to eat certain foods. And I wanna let you know that not only is is it normal, but I'm expecting it. And so if parents are expecting it, then they can sort of say to themselves, oh, I just have to weather this part of the storm. This is a normal part of development and it will fade. What happens for a lot of parents instead of that is because they think that something's wrong, they start making a lot of accommodations. Either they stop serving those foods 'cause the kids won't eat them, or they start really implementing feeding practices that end up being problematic in the long run. So things like bribing their kids to eat, forcing their kids to eat, um, negotiating number of bites. And it creates this power dynamic. And I think if you've ever, uh, been around a 2-year-old, they're pretty willful and it's really hard to, like, you can't force 'em to do much. And so trying to get your 2-year-old to eat broccoli, uh, in a forceful way, it ends up creating a really bad dynamic around food. And then that problem goes on for much longer than it would if, you know, and if patient, if parents just had the knowing that this is a phase they have to exhibit some patients and that they should continue to introduce those foods. So this idea of rejecting foods is a normal developmental phase That's absolutely fascinating. And I'm, I'm thinking of, um, friends who have young children and uh, I see their negotiating skills and uh, it's as though the child at the age of two or three went to Stanford Law School because they can really argue very well and uh, end up being the victor of, you know, whether it's the start of going to a drive through or whatever. So I think those are great, great points.