If your child is hesitant to try new foods and is only willing to eat the same type of food prepared the same way almost everyday – you’ve got yourself a picky eater. Picky eating has become a great concern for parents and young children and could lead to health and developmental difficulties including physical growth.

Contrary to popular belief that children’s growth and height are determined by genetics only, nutrition actually contributes up to 80% to children’s growth in the first 5 years¹. So if your child is a picky eater, he or she may result in insufficient nutrient intake for optimal physical growth.

In the recent survey conducted by IMFeD for Growth and Abbott in 2019, it was revealed that 1 in 6 Malaysian children between the ages of 1-5 years old suffer from stunting, which is pretty worrying. So how can you ensure that your child achieves his optimal physical growth?

Tips to Catch Up on Growth for Picky Eaters

Although picky eating is a common stage of development in many children, there are a few ways to overcome this in order for your child to grow to their fullest potential.

Some of the strategies² that you may want to consider are:

• Limit meal time to 30 minutes
• Encourage regular, set meal times
• Age appropriate portion sizes
• Avoid distractions while eating

Child nutritional supplement (CNS) can play a pivotal role in addressing this issue. PediaSure offers measurable and demonstrable results of children’s physical growth, backed by scientifically proven results, making it the number 1 choice for healthcare professionals.

You’ll be able to see improvements in your child’s appetite in 4 weeks³, visible physical growth in 8 weeks^3,4 and lesser sick days in 16 weeks³. Beyond that PediaSure, also improves gut health and addresses issues around picky eating, leading to more holistic development of children.

PediaSure now available in Plain flavour with 0% sucrose, is a complete and balanced nutritional supplement that comes with Arginine, Natural Vitamin K₂ , Calcium and 25 key nutrients to help children achieve visible growth in 8 weeks^3,4. It’s a great option for parents looking for something less sweet but equally nutritious for their children.

To find out if your child is on the right track to achieving his/her optimal adult height, head on to https://pediasure.com.my/watchMeGrow/height-predictor and discover your child’s adult height potential.

Reference:
^ Abbott Regional HCP Tracker for Growing Up Milk Category in Malaysia, conducted by IPSOS between January and March 2019
1. Jelenkovic, A. et al. Genetic and environmental influences on height from infancy to early adulthood: An individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts. Sci. Rep. 6, 28496; doi: 10.1038/srep28496 (2016).
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6398579/
3. Huynh DTT et al. J Hum Nutr Diet (2015), 28, 623-635, Longitudinal growth and health outcomes in nutritionally at-risk children who received long-term nutritional intervention
4. Huynh DTT et al. 5 th International Conference on Nutrition & Growth 2018. Oral nutritional supplementation improved linear growth in Filipino children at nutritional risk.