Reddit reviews First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

I've been reading a very interesting book First Bite How We Learn to Eat by Bee Wilson. I goes over the history and research on how people develop taste preferences and food habits starting from infancy (as well as cultural preferences/standards and how they've developed). It's not actually a parenting book but I think it would be very helpful for you to look at. I'm actually reading it out parental curiosity and it has wonderful info in it that I think will help me when my baby is old enough.

One thing I've learned so far is you don't need to accept defeat that your child just won't like these things (at least at such a young age). Even children with an extremely restricted diet (one all the way to feeding tube) can learn to vastly expand the things they are willing to eat with the right dedicated program. If it's a severe enough problem there are therapies and centers for it that are very effective (there are probably bad ones too). It's also important to change habits now as apparently what you eat as a toddler is very strongly correlated to what/how well you will eat as an adult.

There are things parents can do themselves just in terms of approach/parenting style. One program that was discussed briefly in the book but is more accessible to you then therapy/a center (I'm guessing?) was Tiny Tastes. The researcher had found that when parents constantly battle children over food/meal times this creates a stressful/emotional unpleasant situation for the child where they have a harder time learning to like new things. Pressure basically was counterproductive but so is just giving up. Likewise, bribing with a "yummyer" food (eat veggie to get ice cream) is also problematic. She developed a program where toddlers have the option to try a pea sized amount of a food they dislike (which they choose from some options) during a non-meal non-stressful time. They try the same food for many days in a row to get used to the flavor without so much of it that the it's upsetting. (Eating a lot of something you dislike creates an unpleasant memory and feels daunting.) They are offered a small non-food reward (she used a sticker) to motivate them to try but not enough that they attribute liking it to the reward. Apparently this was very successful in getting toddlers to like new/more foods (though not every food). It looks like you can buy more detailed directions and description online and it's not too expensive.

This sounds familiar! We have a 12-year-old that, among her MANY dislikes, won't even eat strawberries (WTF kid, no fruit?) and also 13-year-old diagnosed with anorexia at age 10. You daughter sounds like she may have something that falls into the eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) category, or she may just be really picky.

In perusing reddit, I found this thread a few weeks back. That led me to a book, First Bite: How We Learn to Eat, which discusses how we learn to eat in the first place, and how to begin re-training an overly-sensitive/picky eater. It's not a solution, but it is a place to start.

This book by Bee Wilson explains it wonderfully. Basically our taste for certain foods is learned, not inherited.

https://www.amazon.com/First-Bite-How-Learn-Eat/dp/0465064981

This book cites a TON of different research and is generally an interesting read. Looking at her bibliography might lead you to something https://www.amazon.com/First-Bite-How-Learn-Eat/dp/0465064981