If your dinner table feels more like a battlefield over broccoli than a place of joy, we have good news: science suggests it’s not your fault. A new study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry found that parents have a lot less influence over their kids’ picky eating habits than you might think.
So if you have a picky eater, blame your kid’s DNA, not your dinnertime habits.
The research looked at over 1,900 pairs of twins to figure out what’s really behind kids turning their noses up at peas or refusing anything that isn’t chicken nuggets. Their findings indicate that genetic factors play a substantial role in picky eating, meaning those food habits may be baked into your child’s DNA, not a product of your parenting style.
