Longitudinal associations between eating and drinking engagement during mealtime and eating in the absence of hunger in low income toddlers

Abstract

To develop effective obesity-related interventions during early life, it is important to identify predictors of eating in the absence of hunger during toddlerhood. Hence, this study examined longitudinal associations between child eating and drinking engagement at 27 months of age and child eating in the absence of hunger (EAH) at 33 months of age (N = 91 children; 57.1% boys). At 27 months of age, we coded child eating and drinking engagement during a videotaped naturalistic lunch meal at home. We also obtained mothers' reports of their child's food responsiveness (FR), satiety responsiveness (SR), and desire to drink (DD) using the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ). Children participated in a standard EAH protocol at 27 and 33 months of age where they were presented with palatable foods and the amount of food eaten was assessed (calculated as total kilocalories consumed). Correlational analyses showed that EAH at 27 months of age was positively related to EAH at 33 months of age and that neither mother-reported child FR or SR were associated with child eating engagement. Mother-reported child DD was associated with child drinking engagement. To predict EAH at 33 months, a regression analysis was conducted in which EAH at 27 months, mother-reported and observed child eating and drinking engagement at 27 months were entered as predictors, controlling for child demographics (i.e., age, sex, race/ethnicity and weight-for-length z-score (WLZ). Findings were that children who were observed to engage in more drinking at 27 months of age consumed more energy (measured as kcal) in the EAH at 33 months of age. Implications for understanding eating, and drinking, behaviors in toddlerhood are discussed.

Validation of a Classroom Version of the Eating in the Absence of Hunger Paradigm in Preschoolers

“…For example, food responsiveness was not significantly correlated with EAH in our sample. Other groups have found a small positive ( r = 0.19) ( 28 ) or no correlation ( 29 – 32 ) between food responsiveness and EAH. Enjoyment of food was not correlated with EAH, which is consistent with other studies ( 28 , 30 ).…”

“…In Fisher and Birch's original study of 3-5 year olds, weightfor-height was positively associated with child kcal intake for girls (r = 0.38) but not boys (r = −0.08) (1). Kcal consumed in an EAH session was positively associated with BMI-z in French preschoolers (r = 0.14) (14) and U.S. Hispanic children in Head Start (r = 0.20) (31), while other studies have found no association between EAH and BMI or weight status in young children (30,32,35,36). Our ability to detect an association between BMI an EAH may have been limited due to the small sample size and relatively high average BMI among this sample; nearly half of children had a BMI exceeding the 85th percentile.…”

Associations Between Independent Assessments of Child Appetite Self-Regulation: A Narrative Review

“…The SRES was also negatively associated with emotional eating from the DEBQ (r = −0.30, p < 0.01) in the Tan and Holub (32) study, but the association was moderate. Most of the 11 studies comparing self-report questionnaires to observational tasks showed either no significant associations (4 studies) (24,35,39,41) or weak and no associations (3 studies) (26,38,43). Two of the 11 studies showed moderate associations only between eating rate/speed and CEBQ subscales: negative association with slowness in eating (r = −0.30, p < 0.001) (42); and negative association with both slowness in eating and satiety responsiveness (r = −0.38, p < 0.001, r = −0.31, p < 0.01, respectively) (40).…”

“…Of the 18 studies included in this review, 11 examined associations between at least one measure of ASR constructs and child BMIz or an equivalent score. Most studies used standard methods for calculating child BMIz (e.g., CDC standards) except three studies: weight-for-length z score (WLZ) (41) and similar procedures (35,37). Henceforth, BMIz will be used to describe child weight status scores.…”

Does social modeling increase infants’ willingness to accept unfamiliar foods?

“…An accepted bite is defined every time the food passes through infant's lips, either with a utensil or with fingers (see Fernandez et al, 2018; Lumeng & Burke, 2006; Tan et al, 2018). Here, infants’ chewing on the food taken in a particular bite is not regarded as additional bites.…”