00:00So we were very interested in understanding why some children might be fussier in terms
00:05of their eating habits in comparison to children who weren't. And by fussy eating I mean
00:11more selectivity in terms of their food palette and more generally a reluctance to try new foods.
00:20And we used a very neat design known as a twin study which allows an estimation of the relative
00:28influence of genetic influences and also environmental influences as well. And the
00:35way we do this is by comparing identical twins to non-identical twins. And we used
00:41twins who are measured all the way up from 16 months all the way up to 12 to 13 years of age.
00:48And using this large population-based cohort we find that food fussiness across childhood
00:54and into adolescence was very stable. And food fussiness was also largely contributed to
01:01by genetic influences in the population. And a lot of children could potentially struggle with
01:07greens for example, more cruciferous vegetables potentially due to the texture. But I think this
01:12really depends on an individual basis. I mean and there's lots of things that parents can do
01:17to support their children in terms of their fussy eating. So for example evidence suggests
01:24that repeated exposure to foods that children might be struggling with or might be a bit nervous
01:30about can actually be quite effective in widening the food palette for children. But also more
01:37generally continuing to offer those foods and to offer more supportive mealtimes and to make
01:43mealtimes more enjoyable I think generally is the advice going forward for parents.
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