"FOOD FAD KIDS WHO CAUSE MEALTIME MISERY"
The Survey discovered that children who are faddy eaters are causing mealtime misery in a third of UK households while also putting their health at risk. The Haliborange survey found…

• Two out of three children go through a stage of refusing to eat certain foods, a quarter reject a wide range of healthy eating options, while one in twenty reject almost everything set before them.
• With the need for good nutrition high on parents' agenda, they are most likely to argue when each parent takes different views on how best to encourage children to eat more healthily.
• Two thirds (65%) of the under tens refuse fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Most hated vegetables are Brussels sprouts (41%) cabbage (30%) and tomatoes (28%).
• Bananas and potatoes, by contrast, received the thumbs up from more than nine out of ten children.
• The most hated meals include anything made with garlic (21%), eggs (20%) or milk. Boys are more likely than girls to refuse any dish that has garlic in it.
• For some children colour matters more than taste with one in five (18%) rejecting anything coloured green. Such colour prejudice is most likely to be found among the eight to ten year olds (17%).
• Food fads affect more than half of all two to six year olds.

The survey also showed that parents understand why nutrition is so important and identified four types of parents who deal with fads in very different ways. It was clear that parent's approach depends on the child's age and sometimes their sex. Thus for parents to deal successfully with their child's faddy eating and ensure they eat food packed with nutrients they may have to adopt several approaches throughout their child's early life.

• Coaxers (45%) understand why nutrition is important and try and persuade children to eat more healthily but do not insist if they still refuse. These are more likely to be fathers than mothers (57% vs. 44%) and to be dealing with their daughters rather than their sons (49% vs. 41%). Their children are also more likely to be under five. Such parents are the most likely to be concerned to ensure that their child eats a nutritionally balanced diet. Parents who coax their child are also the most likely to say they go through periods of faddy eating (44%).
  
  
• Detectives (26%) try and discover why their child dislikes a rejected food. Those who adopt this approach are most likely to be worried about the consequences of a poor diet and are anxious to provide foods packed with nutrients. They are more likely to be mums than dads (27% vs. 17%) and to have children aged between five and seven (30%). They are also most likely to be younger parents. More than a third (35%) of parents under the age of twenty-five would turn food detective compared to only a quarter (24%) of those aged thirty-six and older.
  
  
• Dictators (7%) order their child to eat and refuse to take no for an answer. Those who admitted that this was their usual tactic were women, with the highest proportion being aged thirty-six and older. The older the child the more likely it is that a minority of parents adopt this strategy. Although less than one in twenty parents of children under five (5%) would ever insist that a disliked food was eaten, the proportion rose to one in ten (9%) with children over 5. Parents who order their child to eat are the most likely to describe their child as a very fussy eater (41%). They are also most likely to say their child refuses to eat anything green (24%), or any dish with garlic in it (29%) and to describe food refusal as a major cause of frequent mealtime misery.
• Diplomats (22%) Two parents out of ten make no comment when their child refuses to eat something but simply avoid serving the disliked food again. This approach is more likely to be taken by mums than dads (27% vs. 17%) and of children aged eight to ten (26%). Diplomats are far more likely to be older than younger parents. While only one in seven (14%) of those under twenty-five adopt this approach, almost one in four parents (38%) over the age of forty do so.