Picky Eating Kids a Sign of Mental Illness

Children who are very selective with what they eat may not only be at risk of nutritional deficiency and inadequate weight gain.

A new study published in Pediatrics journal finds that kids who make a habit of shunning certain foods are also more likely to have symptoms of such psychopathological conditions as depression, anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

In fact, by itself, extremely picky eating is already considered a distinct form of mental disorder. In May 2013, selective eating disorder (SED), also called Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), a psychiatric classification and diagnostic tool in use across North America.

To test the correlation between picky eating and mental health issues in children, researchers from Duke University assessed the eating habits of about 3,400 preschoolers, visiting them in their homes and asking their parents or caregivers a battery of questions about their behavior as well as their sensitivity to sensory experiences, reports LiveScience.

After a year, the researchers checked in with a subgroup of about 200 of these kids. Two years following the survey, the team from Duke University again evaluated a subset of the test subjects.

They found that about one-fifth had at least moderate levels of selective eating, and 3 percent of parents reported severely restricted eating. The team did not include not liking broccoli and other cruciferous veggies as a sign of picky eating since most kids typically really do tend to avoid them.

Compared with the children with no eating issues, the moderate and severe picky eaters were found more likely to suffer from anxiety, depression and ADHD, both at the time of the survey and in the two-year follow-up, according to LiveScience.

It's not clear how or why picky eating may be tied to these psychopathological conditions, but it may be that children who have heightened sensory experiences overall are also more sensitive to the food they eat, the researchers at Duke University reportedly wrote in their paper.

Another possible explanation suggested to LiveScience by Marcia Pelchat, a psychologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, who was not part of the Duke University research team, is that picky eating causes such unpleasant mealtime drama between parents and kids that it indirectly leads to anxiety and other mental health conditions.

But then, it's also likely, she added, that the kids with a "predisposition to anxiousness" may simply have more fears surrounding food.

Between 25 percent to 35 percent of typically developing children in the U.S. have feeding disorders, according to Natalia Stasenko, writing for Food and Nutrition, and up to 40 percent to 70 percent with chronic medical problems are struggling with issues related to feeding and nutrition.

Because it has just been newly recognized as a medical condition under DSM-5, there is still little data on the actual extent of SED or ARFID. However, it appears that it usually starts in infancy or childhood, but can also persist through adulthood.