Eating behaviour and its variability in 1-year-old children

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Pediatric Nutrition
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Understanding the development of eating behaviors in infants is crucial for identifying potential feeding issues.
• Previous research often relies on controlled settings, which may not reflect naturalistic eating patterns.
• The weaning period is a critical phase for establishing lifelong eating habits.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the variability of naturalistic eating behaviors in 12-month-old children.
• To assess the reliability of single-meal observations for characterizing children's feeding patterns.
• To identify common eating behaviors, including food refusal and self-feeding, in this age group.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal study involving 30 children aged 12 months.
• Naturalistic mealtime observations videotaped in the children's homes on four separate occasions.
• Mealtime behavior coded using a validated scheme for feeding over the weaning period.
• Inter-observer reliability assessed for coding accuracy.

Main Results:

• High inter-observer reliability (r > 0.9) for coded eating behaviors.
• Significant meal-to-meal variability in children's eating behaviors (41-54% between-subject variance).
• Food refusal (median 11 instances) and self-feeding actions (median 12 instances) were common.

Conclusions:

• Eating behaviors in 1-year-old children are highly variable, making single-meal assessments unreliable.
• Food refusal is a normal and frequent behavior in healthy 1-year-olds.
• Longitudinal, naturalistic observations are necessary for a comprehensive understanding of infant feeding development.