Children are known for being picky eaters. But what happens when these picky eaters grow up?

Many children leave behind their quirky eating habits as they get older. But “what is less certain are the predictors of who will remain a picky eater in adulthood,” said Nancy Zucker, a psychologist and director of the Duke Center for Eating Disorders. She is the lead author of a 2015 study that linked picky eating in some preschoolers with emotional problems.

Adults may hang on to their youthful food dislikes — at the top of the list are vegetables — but then add more restrictions, such as consuming only smooth foods or limiting their diet to bland, white meals. Dr. Zucker said that in a sample of 2,600 adults who identified themselves as picky eaters, 75 percent reported the pattern started in childhood.

The estimates of picky eating in childhood vary widely, ranging from 5 percent to more than 25 percent, depending on the definition of selective eating. But “there is no consensus on the prevalence in adults,” Dr. Zucker said. One reason is that many adults try to keep their picky eating a secret, a common source of stress that can lead to personal or professional problems.

As a child, Stephanie Lucianovic, the author of “Suffering Succotash: A Picky Eater’s Quest to Understand Why We Hate the Foods We Hate,” would hide vegetables or hold her nose during meals. As an adult, her selective eating posed new challenges when she fell in love with a man from a “foodie” family.