Eating behaviour in childhood week/lecture 4/5 - essential reading

Question 1

Bąbik, K. et al. (2021). Infant feeding practices and later parent- reported feeding difficulties: A systematic review.

Answer 1

• Early feeding practices may influence the acceptance of new foods and contribute to development of feeding difficulties later in childhood
  
  • Evaluate association of BF duration, timing of feeing introduction, and feeding techniques with difficulties
  • Interventional and observational studies
  • 1 RCT
  • Longer duration of BF associated with fewer childhood feeding problems
    ○ Small and non significant differences
  • Inconsistent results linking complementary feeding introduction to parent-reported feeding difficulties
  • Baby-led weaning compared to spoon feeding was significantly associated with less fussiness at age 12 to 36 months
  • Overall no strong evidence to support the hypothesis that early feeding practices contribute significantly to specific parent-reported feeding difficulties in children older than 1yo

Question 2

Mitchell (Witcomb), G.L., Farrow, C., Haycraft, E. & Meyer, C. (2013). Parental influences on children’s eating behaviour and characteristics of successful parent-focussed interventions

Answer 2

• Difficulties related to child-feeding ajd children’s eating behaviour are extremely common
  
  • Fussing eating poses no immediate threat to health but a poor diet can contribute to health problems later on
  • Stress and anxiety surrounding mealtime can have a detrimental impact on child and parents psychological wellbeing
  • Feeding difficulties may be preventable by better parental awareness as parents have great influence of what and when children eat

Question 3

Townsend, E. & Pitchford, N.J. (2012). Baby knows best? The impact of weaning style on food preferences and body mass index in early childhood in a case-controlled sample

Answer 3

• Baby-led group compared to spoon-led group showed increased liking for carbs
  ○ Carbs most preferred foods
  
  • Preference and exposure ratings not influenced by socially desirable responding or SES
    ○ Increased liking for veg associated with higher social class
  • More underweight in baby-led group
  • More obesity in spoon-fed group
  • No difference in picky eating found between the two weaning groups
  • Weaning style impacts on food preferences and health in early childhood
  • Infants weaned through baby-led approach learn to regulate their food intake in a manner which leads to lower BMI and a preference for healthy foods like carbs.
    ○ Implications for combatting rise of obesity

Question 4

Galloway, A.T., Fiorito, L.M., Francis, L.A., Birch, L.L. (2006). ‘Finish your soup’: counterproductive effects of pressuring children to eat on intake and affect.

Answer 4

• Children consumed significantly more food when they were not pressured to eat
  
  • They made much fewer negative comments
  • Children pressured to eat at home had lower BMI scores and were less affected by the pressure in the lab setting than children who were not pressured at home
    Supports evidence from previous correlational research indicating that pressure can have negative effects on children’s affective responses to healthy foods and the intake of healthy foods