Picky eaters will never grow out of their fussy habits if they don't have a varied diet by the age of four, a study has suggested.
Researchers found that fussy eating is cemented at a young age and the more parents try to control their children's diets, the pickier they may become.
The best time to try to expand a child's food preferences is when they are a toddler, but any attempts after that are likely to fail, the study said.
The findings, published in the Pediatrics Journal, come from a four-year US study of 317 mothers and their children.
Families reported their children's eating habits and how mothers felt about feeding when the children were four, five, six, eight and nine.
Researchers found picky eating was stable from nursery to school age, suggesting any attempts to get children to eat a wider range of foods need to happen when they are a toddler to be most effective.
The pickiest eaters tended to be under the most pressure to eat more foods, often resulting in them restricting their diet further.
Senior author Dr Megan Pesch, from Michigan Medicine C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, said: "If your [four year old] often pushes their dinner plate away or wages battles against taking another bite of a vegetable they don't like, they may not grow out of it anytime soon.
"Picky eating is common during childhood and parents often hear that their children will eventually 'grow out of it.' But that's not always the case.
"Mothers of picky eaters may be trying to shape their children's preferences for more palatable and selective diets to be more healthful. But it may not always have the desired effect."
The study also found that children reluctant to eat certain foods tended to have lower body mass index (BMI) and are also less likely to be overweight or obese.
Dr Pesch added: "We still want parents to encourage varied diets at young ages, but our study suggests that they can take a less controlling approach.
"That being said, we need more research to better understand how children's limited food choices impact healthy weight gain and growth long term."
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Picky eaters will never evolve their diets if they fail to vary their food by the age of four - Telegraph.co.uk
