Why Modern Parents Struggle Feeding Their Toddler

Why won't your toddler eat anything new? It isn't a phase, and it isn't bad parenting — it's a 50,000-year-old survival instinct that switches on the moment a child learns to walk, back when half of all wild plants were toxic and refusing the unfamiliar was the safest thing a newly mobile child could do. In this one we get into the toddler poison-avoidance window, why bitter and green get rejected on sight, and how a refused food finally becomes a favorite — by the tenth quiet try. SOURCES & FURTHER READING Elizabeth Cashdan, "Adaptiveness of Food Learning and Food Aversions in Children" (Social Science Information, 1998) — the food-neophobia window peaks almost to the month when a child becomes mobile enough to feed themselves. Leann L. Birch & Diane W. Marlin, "I don't like it; I never tried it: Effects of exposure on two-year-old children's food preferences" (Appetite, 1982) — repeated exposure, not pressure, is what turns a refused food into an accepted one. Julie A. Mennella, "Ontogeny of Taste Preferences: Basic Biology and Implications for Health" (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2014) — children are born primed to prefer sweet and to reject bitter, and taste especially sharply in early childhood. Terence M. Dovey et al., "Food neophobia and 'picky/fussy' eating in children: A review" (Appetite, 2008) — neophobia is a normal developmental stage that rises in toddlerhood and eases with age. Timothy Johns, "With Bitter Herbs They Shall Eat It: Chemical Ecology and the Origins of Human Diet and Medicine" (1990) — wild plants defend themselves with bitter alkaloids and other toxins, the chemical backdrop our food instincts evolved against. ABOUT THE CHANNEL Every week, Antiquated Humans takes one thing about modern life that makes you feel broken — and shows you the ancient reason it actually makes sense. You're not doing it wrong. You're just doing it old. Subscribe:    / @antiquatedhumans   #pickyeater #toddler #parenting #parentingtips #gentleparenting #momlife #evolution #ancienthumans