Early influences on the development of children’s eating behavior
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1
The University of Georgia, Foods and Nutrition, United States
As mammals, we begin life consuming only milk, but as omnivores, by late infancy, we must begin to consume a variety of foods to support growth and health. Fortunately, infants are biologically prepared for this dietary transition; we are born preferring the sweet taste, rejecting sour and bitter, and ready to learn to prefer the flavors of foods that become familiar to us. Initially, many flavors from foods in the maternal diet are present in amniotic fluid and breast milk, providing opportunities for familiarization with those flavors even prior to tasting those foods, thus facilitating familiarization and the transition to the local omnivorous diet [1]. Familiarization is a basic type of learning, which is particularly important in early life. With repeated experience, the initial “neophobic” avoidance reaction to a new flavor can be transformed into a flavor preference. While flavors that are unfamiliar tend to be rejected, those that become familiar are likely to be preferred over novel ones. This prepares the infant to prefer flavors in the mothers’ diet, which are likely to be the foods available to the infant. The transition from suckling to consuming a varied diet begins in the first months of life, because by the second half of the first year, breast milk alone is not adequate to support healthy growth. This dietary transition is well underway in infancy; by 24 months, children are consuming diets that are similar to those of their parents, diets too high in added sugars, fats, and salt, and too low in essential nutrients [2].
Familiarization with foods and flavors of the adult diet involves the gradual introduction of infants to “table” foods of the adult diet. In the US, this typically begins at around 4 to 6 months. Novel foods tend to be initially rejected, but with repeated exposure, the novel can become familiar, accepted, and preferred. In addition to familiarization, several other learning processes also contribute to the acquisition of flavor preferences, including associative conditioning of flavors to the social contexts and physiological consequences of eating [3].
Via associative conditioning, food flavors associated with unpleasant social contexts of eating tend to become disliked and the association with negative physiological consequences of nausea or vomiting can result in conditioned aversions. In contrast, flavors associated with positive social interactions, or the positive post-ingestive feedback produced by internal cues, become preferred [4]. Children learn to eat by observation; what they see others eat influences their food choices and eating behaviors. Because young children eat what they like, the evidence on early acquisition of food and flavor preferences can inform the development of early preventive interventions to foster flavor preferences that support healthier diets. However, such evidence-based interventions are just being developed and evaluated [5].
Today, children in the U.S. and many other countries are learning about food and acquiring flavor preferences in a context characterized by a wide variety of inexpensive, readily available, highly palatable foods that are high in energy density, but low in other essential nutrients. Many of these foods are designed to appeal to our genetic predisposition to prefer sweet and salty tastes. These preferences are present in infancy, sweet and salty tastes are preferred without familiarization [1]. Given our food environment, it is especially challenging for parents and other caregivers to provide infants and young children with the requisite early experience necessary to acquire preferences for the flavors of healthy foods (e.g., vegetables), which are neither sweet nor salty, and may contain bitter components. However, there is increasing evidence that using what we know about the effects of early learning and experience on food and flavor preferences can promote children’s ability to like foods that compose healthy diets [6].
Currently, there is little evidence-based guidance available for parents and caregivers on how to foster the acquisition of flavor preferences in infancy and early childhood that would promote intake of foods that are not sweet or salty, including vegetables and other key components of healthy diets. The absence of dietary guidelines for children under 24 months, a key developmental period of dietary transition, is largely due to the limited evidence base on nutrient needs and appropriate feeding practices. Fortunately, a new initiative “The B-24 Project”, sponsored jointly by DHHS and ARS, has the goal of including the period from birth to 24 months in the 2020 Dietary Guidelines. A first step has been to identify existing evidence and areas where evidence is needed to inform guidelines for infants and young children [7]. In addition, a recent IOM publication, Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Policies, includes information on feeding infants, toddlers and preschoolers, but is targeted primarily to healthcare and childcare providers [8]. We are currently missing opportunities to promote healthy diets in early life. The existing research on early learning of food and flavor preferences can be used to inform the development of evidence-based interventions to promote healthier diets during the first years of life.
Acknowledgements
NIDDK R01DK088244-01A1 and R01DK099364-02
References
1. Mennella JA, Trabulsi JC. (2010) Ann Nutr Metab 60:(Suppl 2):40–50.
2. Fox MK, Condon E, Briefel RR, Reidy KC, Deming DM. (2010) J Am Diet Assoc 110(12 Suppl):S52-9.
3. Birch LL, Anzman SA. (2010) Child Dev Persp 4:138-143.
4. Yeomans MR, In Dube L, Bechara A, Dagher A, Drewnowski A, Lebel J, James P, Yada RY, Laflamme-Sanders M. (2010) Burlington, MA: Elsevier 2010; 161-178.
6. Birch LL, Doub AE. Learning to eat: birth to age 2y. Am J Clin Nutr 2014; 99: 3 723S-728S.
7. Paul IM, Savage JS, Anzman SL, Beiler JS, Marini ME, Stokes JL, Birch LL. (2011) Obesity 19:353-361. Supplement - Am J Clin Nutr 2014; 99S.
8. IOM (Institute of Medicine). (2011). Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Policies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Keywords:
Childhood Obesity,
fat,
Food Familiarity,
Infancy,
Preference learning,
salt,
sweet
Conference:
Science of Human Flavor Perception, New York, United States, 9 May - 9 May, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Abstract
Topic:
Science of Human Flavor Perception
Citation:
Birch
L
(2015). Early influences on the development of children’s eating behavior.
Front. Integr. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
Science of Human Flavor Perception.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnint.2015.03.00008
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Received:
28 Jul 2014;
Published Online:
30 Jan 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Prof. Leann Birch, The University of Georgia, Foods and Nutrition, Athens, GA, United States, llb15@uga.edu