Establishing dietary habits during childhood for long-term weight control

To review psychosocial research with respect to relevance for the development of nutritional education strategies for optimal weight control during childhood and the longer term.

Recent decades have witnessed changes in the social context of eating, with a trend away from family meals towards grazing and eating alone. At the same time, the prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing amongst both children and adults, with even young children deliberately practising weight control measures, ranging from selective food choice to self-induced vomiting. Such behaviour is motivated by unrealistic perceptions of healthy body weight and shape. Successful long-term management of healthy body weight is supported by flexible control of eating behaviour and long-term educational strategies. Children are interested in learning about a wide range of nutrition topics. However, to be effective, nutrition education should be appropriate to the stage of cognitive development according to the age of the child, and be placed in the context of the direct, perceivable and immediate benefits resulting from good nutrition.

Educational strategies should focus on consumption of a balanced diet, coupled with provision of a variety of foods, including a range of nutrient-dense "healthy" food and encouraging children to taste unfamiliar dishes. They should provide a stable and predictive pattern of social eating occasions to promote the social meaning and importance of eating, and to enable social learning of food preferences. Educational strategies should provide orientation and reassurance regarding the range of healthy and acceptable body weights and shapes. They should also encourage flexible control of eating behaviour to enable children to maintain their weight within this healthy range.