Selective, or “picky”, eating habits, common among children, can often persist into adulthood, and can even begin in the teen or adult years, a recent study suggests.

However, being a picky eater as an adult was not tied to being either overweight or underweight, nor was it linked to eating disorders, researchers found.

“Although selective eating is common in toddlers it usually lessens or disappears in early childhood,” Dr Stewart Agras said.

This study found that some selective eaters continue into early adult life and that their selective eating is similar to that in childhood

“This study found that some selective eaters continue into early adult life and that their selective eating is similar to that in childhood,” Dr Agras, a psychiatrist at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, said.

The longer a child remained a picky eater, the more likely they were to be picky as adults too, he added. “If a child’s selective eating persisted for six years or more, they remain selective eaters in adult life,” Dr Agras said.

The researchers followed up on 61 young adults, all about 23 years old, who were originally enrolled as babies in a Stanford study of infant growth.

Ten of the participants had been classified as picky eaters at age three. Six remained picky at age 23. Another 11 participants who were not picky eaters as toddlers had become selective eaters in adolescence or later, the study team reports.

The six new cases of selective eating were rather surprising, Dr Agras noted.

But the selective-eating-related behaviors seen among the adult participants - such as limiting the variety of foods they ate, reluctance to try new foods and strong likes or dislikes - were similar to those reported during childhood.

“There was no evidence of increased eating disorder psychopathology, excessive thinness, or obesity in selective eaters compared with non-selective eaters,” he said.

Past studies showed that selective eating could be very stressful for parents and can often lead to disagreements on how to handle the problem, especially as temper tantrums over food are quite common, Dr Agras said. Nutritional problems and low weight also occurred in a small proportion of cases.

“Studies have shown that persistent picky eating (into later childhood) is often associated with problems such as depression, anxiousness, behavior problems, etc. However, we did not assess these issues in our study,” he added.

Further research on selective eating in adults was needed to know whether it was a problem for adults, or whether they adapted to it. “Is it associated with other problems in adult life? For the most part selective eating has been considered a transient problem of childhood. Clearly, it is not,” Dr Agras said.

Dr Agras said he would also like to know more about the role of taste sensitivity in picky eating.

Sandra Arevalo, director of nutrition services and community outreach at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, said that in her experience, patients who struggle with selective eating from early childhood usually continued to do so into adulthood if there was no intervention.

The intervention consists of parents offering a wider variety of foods, prepared in different ways, to their children

“The intervention consists of parents offering a wider variety of foods, prepared in different ways, to their children,” Ms Arevalo, who wasn’t involved in the study, said.

Parents often needed nutrition education and support because they needed to learn new foods, new recipes and meal planning, she noted, adding that parents of picky eaters were often picky themselves.

“There are parents that want to offer new foods to their children, mainly healthier foods, but they don’t eat and refuse to eat these foods themselves, so they are not role modeling for their children,” she said.

Ms Arevalo did not think being a selective eater was a definite cause for a nutrition related condition, but eating a small variety of foods over time could cause some nutrition deficiencies.

“For example, if a child refuses to eat meats and parents aren’t well informed about other protein rich foods they could offer, this child could face a growth stunt,” she said.