My mother is a senior citizen who won’t eat anything with sauce on it, who dislikes most vegetables, doesn’t like any sort of ethnic food, Who won’t eat any dairy. She subsists almost entirely on carbohydrates and brags about how when she went to Europe she brought a jar of peanut butter with her because she couldn’t find anything to eat apparently on the entire continent. Traveling with her is miserable. When she visits us almost all restaurants except for Applebee’s are out, and it’s the same when we visit her. Her severely limited diet affects everyone in the families activities. That’s a picky eater!

I hate it that we expect little kids to eat everything and not have preferences. To me, the difference is more in degree. Does the kid eat most things, but has a few things they don't like? Or do they dislike most things, and have only a few things or narrow categories of foods they will eat?

Most people don't like a handful of things. If you eat most things without a fuss, you're not a picky eater. Or you eat it anyway because it's polite and someone made it for you, even if you don't love it.

So what you don't like bananas? Do you eat peppers, carrots, raspberries, and sweet potatoes? Cool. You're normal.

Anonymous wrote:It's picky eating when your diet is so limited that it effects their quality of life and that of people around them. If someone cannot sit down to a meal that was prepared for them or go to a restaurant and find enough food to their taste that they are able to eat, then that person is picky. It doesn't matter the age. If someone can't deal with finding a food "just ok" and eating it anyway, that person is picky. If you like bananas, but only a specific shade of yellow, then you are picky. Not liking one or two foods is a preference. Only liking one or two foods is being picky.

This. I don't like a lot of things: mushrooms, shellfish, okra, olives. If someone puts it on my plate, i will try it to be polite but wont choose it. Doesnt prevent me from eating anywhere. People can be vegetarian, kosher, vegan etc without being picky because they can consume a wide variety within the general restriction. Picky eaters for me are this that eat one kind of chicken nugget and buttered pasta of one shape only etc and accept no substitute to their specific limited preference. My 3 year old is kind of picky, she wont eat meat not in meatball form but shell eat any shape pasta, yogurt, any fruit and maybe 3 types of vegetables. Its frustrating but enough that she can have a balanced meal most days.

It's picky eating when your diet is so limited that it effects their quality of life and that of people around them. If someone cannot sit down to a meal that was prepared for them or go to a restaurant and find enough food to their taste that they are able to eat, then that person is picky. It doesn't matter the age. If someone can't deal with finding a food "just ok" and eating it anyway, that person is picky. If you like bananas, but only a specific shade of yellow, then you are picky. Not liking one or two foods is a preference. Only liking one or two foods is being picky.

I've been thinking about the picky eater threads lately. It seems like any time a kid doesn't like certain foods/textures they are slapped with the PICKY EATER label.

At what age does it become a food like/dislike (preference) vs. being picky?

I am in my late 40's and I hate bananas. I have always hated bananas. When I was little and my mom tried to make me eat one, I'd gag. Was I being picky as a kid?

One of my teens doesn't want sauce on his meat. If I make a pan sauce for chicken or whatever, he doesn't want the sauce. He will eat the chicken but no sauce. His brother hates mushrooms, he will hunt down every single one in a dish and put it to the side. Because they are teens do they now get to have food likes/dislikes rather than being labeled PICKY?