Picky Eater Family Letter

Dear Abby,

I have a four-year-old son who will be starting preschool in the winter. No matter how hard I try, he refuses to eat so many different types of food, and I am worried about him meeting his nutritional needs. How can I get him to eat other foods?

- Picky Eater Parent

Dear Picky Eater Parent,

It is crucial for you to try to get your child to eat a wider variety of foods. Your son is at the age where he will see or smell an item of food, and already makes an assumption of whether or not he likes it, and will refuse to eat it before trying it (Shutts, Kinzler, Dejesus, 2013). Because your son is so picky, he is consuming few vitamins and nutrients compared to children who are not picky (Shutts et al, 2013).

Do you eat a variety of foods in your household? If your child sees you eating a wider variety of foods and reacting well to them, the more

The school has fixed it, but I am still worried of how this will affect him. Will this affect his schoolwork?

- Long Term Effects

Dear Long Term Effects,

It is important that you and the school continue to monitor this. Studies suggest that those who are bullied have higher levels of depression, anxiety, more likely to commit suicide, perform poorly in their schoolwork, and are at higher risk for health issues (Smithyman, Fireman, Asher, 2014). Your son is not alone though. Through a sample, 76.8% of adolescents reported being bullied at some point in school (Smithyman et al, 2014). Because he is also a boy, he is at a lower-risk of long-term negative outcomes; if he were a girl, it would be a higher risk (Smithyman et al, 2014). Many cases show that those who were bullied in their childhood and adolescence adjusted fairly well into adulthood (Smithyman et al, 2014). So overall, as long as he is not being bullied, his school performance should not be affected. It can be though if the bullying