Neophobia, the fear of incorporating new foods into the diet, is very common among young children. These, once they turn 2 or 3 years old avoid any new taste.
An important recent study carried out with twins by the team of Dr. Cooke, of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health of the University College of London, found that approximately 80% of the children's tendency to refuse new foods is due to genetic causes .
Cooke studied 5,390 pairs of identical twins (monozygotic) and non-identical twins (dizygotic) from 8 to 11 years old. The results showed that food neophobia is hereditary in 78% of cases, while in the remaining cases it is due to environmental factors They are not yet clear.
The evolutionary explanation of this feature is that, during most of human prehistory, the age at which children began to collect wild fruits by themselves was about two or three years. Then, those children who departed from what they knew were less likely to survive. Strange foods may not be good.
That is why it is normal for young children to reject such different and new flavors so frequently when starting complementary feeding, such as vegetables or later fish.
Instead, the acceptance of sweet among the little ones It is usual, and that, apart from the fact that milk has a sweet taste, our ancestors also opted for sugars and fats in search of greater survival.
Over the years, at least in theory, this rejection of the new flavors disappears, and the "acquired flavors" arrive, those we get used to by trying them repeatedly. Although we all know some adult who has stayed in this childhood stage of rejection of new foods ...
And, to finish breaking the statistics, there are also those children who do not mind continuing to try new flavors (whether food or not) to experiment. Let them tell my daughters who already know what kiwi or potato skin tastes like (with built-in soil). Will they change as they grow?
In any case, that the child does not want to try new flavors is genetic. It will depend on us to give time to get used to new foods and present them in a thousand and one ways to accept them and not be afraid to try different things.
