Children's appetite and eating behavior is one of the most frequent reasons for parents' concern. Around 20-40% of parents report eating difficulties with their children, little interest in food, slowness, and selectivity for some foods.

This reaction could be due to the fact that they have food neophobia, that is, "the refusal that some children have to eat new foods, especially around the second year, when they are incorporated into the family table," according to Rosaura Leis, professor of Pediatrics at the University of Santiago de Compostela. It is usually a temporary problem between two and six years of age, and in few cases, it leads to an eating disorder, according to Leis. It corresponds to a normal physiological stage that children can go through at some point after weaning and that usually reaches its peak between 2 and 6 years of age. "It is known that there is a very early link between food neophobic and breastfeeding," says nutritionist Elena Toledano, "a learning door for the acquisition of new foods." "Forcing children to eat foods that they reject, as well as prohibiting those that we believe are not good, is not the solution in these cases, since the power struggle at the table upsets the child who is demanding when eating," says Toledano. "Food should be enjoyable and social, and the child has to be introduced to it, following the gastronomic and culinary traditions of their area, says Leis. "The family, parents, and caregivers, and the school, together with the pediatrician, will play a very important role in the acquisition of healthy lifestyles," adds Toledano. "Most children love sources rich in carbohydrates, such as rice, pasta, potatoes... It is not negative that they love those foods, but that they end up displacing the others. "That is, serving the vegetables themselves with more energetic and protein foods," she adds.