School Age

I wish I’d known then what I know now — because according to Robert Issenman, president of the Canadian Paediatric Society, food jags are quite common in the under-five set. A food jag is an eating pattern in young children, and most little ones will gravitate toward a certain food at some point during childhood. Although a food jag can last anywhere from a few days to several years, Issenman assures us that healthy children will eat and drink what their bodies require. “They’re remarkably resilient and can get by for a long time on a very narrow range of food choices.”

So what is it about a peanut butter sandwich that makes it so appealing? Actually, it’s not the food we should be focusing on, but the reason for the fixation. Issenman notes that food jags usually occur when children are experimenting with autonomy, around age two or three. “They can’t control most of the things going on in their lives, but they can control what goes into their mouths, and when it comes out.” Naturally, this wilfulness catches us by surprise. We underestimate how well developed their personalities can be — especially when they come in such small packages.

While toddlers may be prepared to sacrifice variety for control, their short attention spans mean they’re unlikely to focus on one food for long. By age seven or eight, they will probably have moved past their food jags because, in Issenman’s words, “the influence of peers tends to normalize behaviour.”

Issenman, a paediatrician for nearly 30 years, remembers the most extreme example of a food jag in his Hamilton, Ont., practice. The patient — a 12-year-old boy who had survived on Heinz mixed dinners and strained plums since preschool — weighed more than 160 pounds. After a four-day hospital stay, the boy’s habits normalized, much to the relief of his mom and dad.

Originally published in Today's Parent, December 2007