Observations of Toddlers' sensory-based exploratory behaviors with a novel food

How assisted eating becomes a caring practice in institutional settings: Embodied gestures and stages of assisted eating

Assisted eating is a basic caring practice and the means through which many individuals receive adequate nutrition. Research in this area has noted the challenges of helping others to eat while upholding their independence, though has yet to explicate how this caring practice is achieved in detail and across the lifespan. This paper provides an empirical analysis of assisted eating episodes in two different institutions, detailing the processes through which eating is collaboratively achieved between two persons. Data are video-recorded episodes of infants during preschool lunches and care home meals for adults with dementia, both located in Sweden. Using EMCA's multimodal interaction analysis, three core stages of assisted eating and their underpinning embodied practices were identified: (1) establishing joint attention, (2) offering the food, and (3) transferring food into the mouth. The first stage is particularly crucial in establishing the activity as a collaborative process. The analysis details the interactional practices through which assisted eating becomes a joint accomplishment using a range of multimodal features such as eye gaze, hand gestures, and vocalisations. The paper thus demonstrates how assisted eating becomes a caring practice through the active participation of both caregiver and cared-for person, according to their needs. The analysis has implications not only for professional caring work in institutional settings but also for the detailed analysis of eating as an embodied activity.

Daring to taste: The organisation of children's tasting practices during preschool lunches

Tasting food is the first step toward diversifying eating habits, and studies with children have typically focused on their sensory education and willingness to try new foods. While very little is known about how children taste foods during everyday mealtimes, EMCA (ethnomethodological and conversation analytic) research on adult tasting in naturalistic settings has demonstrated regular organisational patterns. This paper brings these two research areas together, using the insights of EMCA research on adult tasting to inform our understanding of how young children taste food during preschool lunches. Data are taken from a large corpus of video-recorded lunches in Sweden, in which children (3- to 6-year-olds) were eating with staff members. Discursive Psychology and multimodal Conversation Analysis were used to analyse the data. The analysis demonstrates how the sequential organisation of child tasting is similar to adult tasting, and how tasting practices are a collaborative, multisensory activity involving various embodied practices: from the orientation to food as 'to be tasted', the withdrawal of mutual gaze and exaggerated mouth movements, to the re-establishment of gaze accompanying the food assessment. In contrast to adult tasting, however, tasting during preschool lunches is often framed in terms of personal development of the child and of the individualising of taste within the framework of the institution. The findings thus provide further support for EMCA research on sensory practices and contribute to psychological research on children's eating by evidencing the importance of the interactional and institutional context on tasting as a sensory practice.

Dietary Environment in Early Care and Education Settings and Young Children's Eating Behavior: A Systematic Review of Literature

OBJECTIVES

An increasing number of young children spend time and eat at least one meal per day in childcare programs, highlighting the significance of early care and education (ECE) settings in promoting children's healthy dietary behaviors. The purpose of this review was to summarize quantitative studies on the relationship between the dietary environment in ECE settings and the eating behaviors of children aged 0-6 years.

METHODS

We consulted Web of Science, PsycInfo, ProQuest, and Emerald electronic databases, searching for empirical studies from 2000 to 2022.

RESULTS

Ultimately, we included 38 studies. Measures of the dietary environment varied considerably across studies. Following healthy diet regulations and nutrition-related activities were positively correlated with children's intake of healthy foods. Strategies such as serving fruits and vegetables in advance, serving small portion sizes, and providing children a variety of vegetables increased children's intake of healthy foods. Results on caregivers' feeding practices remained mixed.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings reveal the necessity and importance of paying attention to different aspects of the dietary environment and to take a comprehensive approach to understanding the role that environment plays in cultivating children's dietary behaviors.

Innovations in Infant Feeding: Future Challenges and Opportunities in Obesity and Cardiometabolic Disease

The field of nutrition in early life, as an effective tool to prevent and treat chronic diseases, has attracted a large amount of interest over recent years. The vital roles of food products and nutrients on the body’s molecular mechanisms have been demonstrated. The knowledge of the mechanisms and the possibility of controlling them via what we eat has opened up the field of precision nutrition, which aims to set dietary strategies in order to improve health with the greatest effectiveness. However, this objective is achieved only if the genetic profile of individuals and their living conditions are also considered. The relevance of this topic is strengthened considering the importance of nutrition during childhood and the impact on the development of obesity. In fact, the prevalence of global childhood obesity has increased substantially from 1990 and has now reached epidemic proportions. The current narrative review presents recent research on precision nutrition and its role on the prevention and treatment of obesity during pediatric years, a novel and promising area of research.

Behavioural validation of a parent-report measure of child food fussiness

Food fussiness is the rejection of familiar and novel foods leading to consumption that is insufficient and/or inadequately varied. Its importance to children's nutrition and the development of food preferences means it has been the focus of extensive research. To measure food fussiness, research has predominantly relied on parent-report, though parents' reporting of their child's eating behaviour can be reliable, responses may also be subject to bias. Utilising data from video-recordings of sixty-seven mother-child dyads during a meal in the home environment, this study aimed to validate the most widely used parent-report questionnaire measuring food fussiness against independent observations of children's eating behaviour and, in so doing, determine its accuracy. Maternal reported food fussiness, assessed using the Food Fussiness subscale of the Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ; Wardle, Guthrie, Sanderson, & Rapoport, 2001) was compared to children's observed food rejection and acceptance behaviours. Bootstrapped Pearson's correlations revealed that maternal reports of food fussiness were significantly positively related to food rejection behaviours and significantly negatively related to food acceptance behaviours. Maternal reports of food fussiness were also found to be significantly negatively related to the proportion of familiar/appealing of familiar foods consumed by the child. There was no significant association between maternal reported food fussiness and the proportion of familiar/unappealing, unfamiliar/appealing and unfamiliar/unappealing foods consumed by the child or the meal duration. These findings support the CEBQ FF as a valid measure of food fussiness.

Caregiver Influences on Eating Behaviors in Young Children: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association

A substantial body of research suggests that efforts to prevent pediatric obesity may benefit from targeting not just what a child eats, but how they eat. Specifically, child obesity prevention should include a component that addresses reasons why children have differing abilities to start and stop eating in response to internal cues of hunger and satiety, a construct known as eating self‐regulation. This review summarizes current knowledge regarding how caregivers can be an important influence on children's eating self‐regulation during early childhood. First, we discuss the evidence supporting an association between caregiver feeding and child eating self‐regulation. Second, we discuss what implications the current evidence has for actions caregivers may be able to take to support children's eating self‐regulation. Finally, we consider the broader social, economic, and cultural context around the feeding environment relationship and how this intersects with the implementation of any actions. As far as we are aware, this is the first American Heart Association (AHA) scientific statement to focus on a psychobehavioral approach to reducing obesity risk in young children. It is anticipated that the timely information provided in this review can be used not only by caregivers within the immediate and extended family but also by a broad range of community‐based care providers.

Short-Term Effects of an Obesity Prevention Program Among Low-Income Hispanic Families With Preschoolers

OBJECTIVE

To assess the short-term effects of an obesity prevention program promoting eating self-regulation and healthy food preferences in low-income Hispanic children.

DESIGN

Randomized controlled trial with pretest, posttest, and 6- and 12-month assessments.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

Head Start and similar early learning institutions in Houston, TX, and Pasco, WA. A total of 255 families with preschoolers randomized into prevention (n = 136) and control (n = 119) groups.

INTERVENTION

Multicomponent family-based prevention program. Fourteen waves lasted 7 weeks each with 8-10 mother-child dyads in each group.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Parent assessments included feeding practices, styles, and knowledge. Child assessments included child eating self-regulation, willingness to try new foods, and parent report of child fruit and vegetable preferences. Parent and child heights and weights were measured.

ANALYSIS

Multilevel analyses were employed to consider the nested nature of the data: time points within families within waves.

RESULTS

The program had predicted effects on parental feeding practices, styles, and knowledge in the pre- to post-comparisons. Effects on child eating behavior were minimal; only the number of different vegetables tried showed significant pre-post differences.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Short-term effects of this prevention program highlight the importance of family-focused feeding approaches to combating child overweight and obesity.

A longitudinal examination of the role of sensory exploratory behaviors in young children's acceptance of new foods

OBJECTIVE

Prompted engagement with a new food's sensory properties (smell, texture) has been associated with young children's acceptance of new foods. However, little is known about the prevalence and stability of children's sensory exploratory behaviors exhibited spontaneously when trying new foods. The aim of this analysis was to examine developmental trajectories of sensory exploratory behaviors (i.e., smelling, licking, spitting) in response to new foods.

METHOD

This 3-year longitudinal study included observational data collected from 244 preschoolers. At age 4 years, children were asked to taste four novel foods. An experimenter recorded the child's displays of smelling, licking, spitting, refusals, and acceptance. Assessments were repeated at 4.5, 5.5, and 6.5 years of age. Summary scores were created for each child by totaling the number of foods smelled, licked, spit out, refused, and accepted at each time point. A series of growth models were fit to the summary scores to examine individual sensory behavior trajectories and associations between trajectories of sensory behaviors and acceptance.

RESULTS

Linear growth model parameters indicated that spitting and refusals decreased over time (p-values < 0.01), whereas acceptances increased (p < 0.01). Licking and smelling showed non-significant change (p-values > 0.01) Furthermore, decreases in licking, spitting, and refusals were associated with increases in acceptance across the study period (p-values < 0.01).

DISCUSSION

The decline in young children's sensory exploratory behaviors in response to new foods was associated with increases in food acceptance. Our findings suggest that sensory exploratory behaviors may promote familiarity and help children learn that new foods are acceptable and safe to consume.