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Daily manifestations of Children's avid eating behaviour and associations with temperament, parental feeding

Abigail Pickard1, Katie L Edwards2, Claire Farrow3

  • 1School of Psychology and Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment, Aston University, Birmingham, UK; Department of Clinical Psychology, School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.

Appetite
|April 5, 2025
PubMed

Insights

Children with avid eating behaviors frequently request food, especially snacks, and this is linked to increased parental stress. Targeted interventions are needed to support families managing this eating profile.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Nutrition
  • Child Psychology
  • Family Wellbeing

Background:

  • Four eating profiles identified in UK children: avid, happy, typical, and avoidant.
  • Avid eating in children (high food cue responsiveness, emotional eating, fast eating, low fullness response) risks overeating and adiposity.
  • Limited research exists on avid eating's impact on parental behavior and wellbeing.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the frequency of avid eating behavior in 3-5-year-old children.
  • To explore associations between avid eating and child demographics, temperament, home environment, parental feeding, and parental wellbeing.

Main Methods:

  • Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) used with 109 parents of children with avid eating profiles.
  • Latent profile analysis identified avid eating profiles from parent reports.
  • Baseline and momentary data analyzed for associations.

Main Results:

  • Avid eating children frequently requested food, particularly snacks, more often on weekends.
  • Older children and boys exhibited higher probabilities of avid eating.
  • Child surgency correlated with food requests; effortful control related to fewer eating occasions.
  • Parents reported higher stress, depression, and anxiety with avid eaters.
  • Food insecurity linked to increased food requests, indicating a complex interplay.

Conclusions:

  • Avid eating behavior in young children is associated with increased parental stress and specific child characteristics.
  • The findings highlight the need for interventions supporting parents in managing avid eating.
  • Addressing avid eating can improve child health and overall family wellbeing.

Keywords:
Avid eatingEating behaviourEcological momentary assessment (EMA)Preschoolers

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