Food rejection is normal.

Dr Michael Kohn has a special interest in children's eating habits. He reports on nutrition research:

"When asked about common parenting problems, parents and carers only rated financial concerns (54%) and children's illnesses (52%) as being of greater concern to them than children being fussy about food (41%) or children not eating enough (33%).

"So it is no surprise that a child's tendency to reject new foods was found to impact on parental stress levels. And it seems that breakfast might be a parent's only respite from food rejection.

"The study revealed that those children who refuse to eat what is prepared for them occasionally or more often, will reject food the least often at breakfast time compared to any other meal occasion.

"This could be due to the fact that 80% of those children who refuse to eat what is prepared for them will readily accept breakfast cereals.

"Children develop food preferences and eating patterns early in life. Since this study has established that fussy eating is a widespread issue, it is important that parents know that food rejection is normal.

Parents also need to know that it is important for food rejection to be handled correctly to avoid restrictive eating practices from persisting into later life.

"Research shows that children may need to be offered a new food 8-10 times before they will accept it, yet we found that the majority of parents with fussy eaters (53%) will give up offering a new food if the child has not accepted it after 2-3 attempts - so the message to parents is to persevere.

Other interesting findings about children and eating habits include:

• Putting fussy eating into perspective - 27% of children are classed as fussy eaters, yet 22% of parents and carers also admit they themselves are fussy eaters.
• 63% of parents and carers say their stress levels are higher now than they were before having children. 

"So if your child is rejecting new foods don't be discouraged. Be calm and confident."

For more information, contact the Kellogg® consumer contact centre on 1800 000 474 Australia or 0800 881 889 New Zealand

* Newspoll in Australia conducted this survey amongst 375 parents and carers with children between the ages of 2 and 4 years via telephone.

* We define a "fussy eater" as a child who refuses to try new foods half the time or more.