‘Baby brain’? ‘Fussy eater’? By dispelling such myths, science is taking the shame out of parenting | Lucy Jones

Most childcare advice is simply opinion represented as fact. Research based on data and evidence is the liberation we need

• Lucy Jones is the author of Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood

There are few areas in parenting more fraught with anxiety than feeding children. But a new study suggests that if your child is a fussy eater, it may be largely genetic, rather than a result of your terrible parenting. For parents with children who shun their greens, this may come as a relief.

Even if a study like this one won't help me persuade my children to eat more vegetables, I can't get enough of good scientific reports when it comes to issues around motherhood, parenthood and childhood. They can be a soothing poultice in a world of feverish ideology and myth - and with a long history of mother-blaming.