By Aideen Sheehan
Dublin - Irish children are "faddy eaters" with 40 percent of parents saying their youngsters refuse to eat the right amount or types of healthy food.
And in nine out of 10 of these cases, parents have been struggling to cope with food refusal that lasts for more than one month.
Fifty-two per cent have found it lasts more than a year.
The results are in a new survey of more than 500 mothers and fathers carried out on the parenting website Rollercoaster.ie on behalf of Abidec multivitamin company.
It reveals just 22 percent of children eat the recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables, even though 76 percent of parents think their child has a well-balanced diet.
Nutritionist Nuala Collins described the results as "worrying".
"A baby's first few years are a time of remarkable growth. At no other phase in life will they go through such dramatic developmental changes. Some children eat a varied diet without a fuss, whereas others need a great deal of encouragement," she said.
Three-quarters of the parents also said their children ate less oily fish than they should, even though such fish contains Omega 3 oils considered essential during the first year of life for the development of a baby's brain.
Mackerel, salmon, herring, trout and fresh tuna were all good sources of Omega 3, as were fortified foods, but a daily supplement could be used if a child refused these, said Ms Collins.
A toddler's nutrient intake would balance out if a faddy eating stage only lasted a short time, but parents should seek advice from a dietician and may need to consider using vitamin supplements if it continued.
About 59 percent of those parents surveyed gave their child a multivitamin supplement, with over half doing so every day.
Collins gave the following tips to parents to help children through a faddy eating phase:
- Relax about refused meals and assume the child is not hungry.
- Growth patterns are uneven and during a period of slow growth food fads are common.
- Be adventurous and offer lots of tastes and textures as research shows it might take up to 10 tries before a child accepts a new food.
- During a fussy stage offer a child small snacks of foods they like rather than three main meals.
- Offer healthy snacks and remember that anything is better than nothing.
- Leave fluids till end of a meal so they don't fill up.
- Check for a temperature as illness affects appetite.
- Never force a child to eat a certain food or to clear their plate. - Irish Independent