Will my child really eat when they’re hungry enough?

It’s a phrase many parents have heard: “Don’t worry, they’ll eat when they’re hungry enough.”

For some children, that may be true. But when a child has ARFID, significant sensory sensitivities, fear or anxiety around eating, or difficulty recognising their body’s hunger cues, hunger alone may not be enough to overcome the barriers getting in the way of eating.

In fact, waiting for a child to become increasingly hungry can sometimes make eating harder, particularly if hunger contributes to distress, overwhelm or dysregulation.

In this Dietitian Diaries post, I want to unpack why a child can be genuinely hungry and still struggle to eat and why understanding what is making eating difficult can be a much more useful starting point than simply waiting them out.