extra reading on caregiver practices

Question 1

Food as reward-

Answer 1

Fedewa and Davis 2015-
This review explains how using food as a reward for good behaviour can impact upon physical health, including obesity- they suggest we are fostering childrens desire for sweet and unhealthy foods and showed the foods that are used as rewards become more desirable than foods that are not used for rewards- and when these foods are later available there is high level of overconsumption as we have primed these reward pathways!
Also been linked to binge eating disorder, where 6% of people with obesity have binge eating disorder (Wade et al., 2006)

Question 2

Food to soothe

Answer 2

Steinsbekk 2017- Norway has found that school-age children whose parents fed them more to soothe their negative feelings were more likely to eat emotionally later on.

The weight status may be a result of just eating more as these rewarding foods are often high in fats and sugar. But a more solid conclusion is it influences emotional eating later in life!

Question 3

alternative to food to soothe

Answer 3

Harris et al., 2020-

impact of a responsive parenting intervention on child emotional overeating. The intervention, which discouraged using food to soothe distress, resulted in lower reports of emotional overeating in children. This highlights the importance of adopting alternative soothing strategies to prevent the development of emotional eating habits