Marie-France Laval publishes guide on persistent fussy eating

Feeding specialist Marie-France Laval has released a new parenting guide that reframes persistent picky eating as a response shaped by sensory sensitivities, anxiety and threat responses. The book aims to help families reduce mealtime conflict and support children who avoid food.

Why it matters: - Persistent fussy eating can escalate into narrower diets, more stressful mealtimes and ongoing family conflict. - The guide aims to help parents move away from pressure tactics and toward strategies that support confidence, familiarity and food skills. - The book is relevant for families dealing with food anxiety, sensory-based eating difficulties and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, or ARFID.

What happened: - Feeding specialist and author Marie-France Laval released The Fussy Eater Reboot: Confident Eating: A Parenting Plan for Stubborn Picky Eaters. - The book was published in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on July 2, 2026. - The guide focuses on persistent fussy eating, food avoidance, sensory sensitivities and food anxiety. - Laval draws on experience in dietetics, nutrition, social work and hypnotherapy.

The details: - The book argues that children may refuse food because of sensory sensitivities, anxiety, avoidance and protective threat responses, not simply stubbornness or lack of hunger. - Many parents try encouragement, rewards, bargaining, separate meals and immediate replacement foods. - Laval says those strategies can keep the problem going by increasing pressure around eating. - The book explains why some children reject food before tasting it. - The guide covers how fight, flight and freeze responses can show up around food. - It also looks at the role of avoidance, accommodation and protective routines. - The book outlines how parents can respond without coercion. - The framework focuses on reducing conflict and supporting food learning away from pressured mealtimes. - Laval said, “Parents work incredibly hard to help their child eat. But logical strategies such as pressure, bargaining or immediately replacing rejected food can unintentionally keep the difficulty going. The aim is to reduce pressure and create the conditions in which confidence and food skills can develop.” - Laval also said, “A child can look calm at the table while still experiencing food as a psychological threat. Food refusal is not always defiance. For many children, it is protection.”

Between the lines: - The book challenges a common parent assumption that picky eating is mainly a behavior problem. - The clinical framing shifts attention from forcing bites to understanding the child’s stress response. - Pressure and accommodation are presented as opposite strategies that can still reinforce the same message: eating is hard or unsafe. - That perspective may help parents feel less blame and more able to respond with a calmer plan. - The book has endorsements from consultant paediatrician Dr Liam Tjia and psychologist and author Michael Hawton. - Tjia said Laval’s work combines dietetic expertise with psychotherapy and reflects “deeply humane clinical expertise.” - Hawton described the book as a practical guide that supports parents, reduces stress and helps transform mealtimes. - Laval is founder and CEO of Fussy Eater Solutions. - Laval also works with children, adolescents, adults and families experiencing fussy eating, sensory sensitivities, food anxiety, ARFID and other feeding difficulties. - Laval is an Australian-accredited hypnotherapist and uses evidence-informed therapeutic approaches to address anxiety, avoidance and protective responses around food.

What's next: - The Fussy Eater Reboot is available in paperback and ebook formats through Amazon, major ebook retailers and Fussy Eater Solutions. - Laval is available for television, radio, podcast, print and online interviews. - In-person interviews are available in Melbourne. - Review copies, high-resolution book images, author photographs and other media resources are available on request. - Media contact information includes Marie-France Laval, Fussy Eater Solutions, +61 421 843 038, website, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.

The bottom line: - The book reframes fussy eating as a stress-and-safety issue, not just a battle of wills.