ResearchCurrent researchParental pressure, dietary patterns, and weight status among girls who are “picky eaters”
Section snippets
Participants
Participants were from central Pennsylvania and were part of a longitudinal study of the health and development of young girls. There were 192 girls who participated in the study at 7 years of age and 183 girls who participated again when they were age 9. Reasons for attrition included the following: family moved from the area, was no longer interested in participating, or failed to attend data collection session. Complete data were collected from 173 non-Hispanic white girls and their mothers
Measures
Maternal pressure to eat more and mothers’ dietary intake were measured when girls were 7 years old (7.3±0.3). Daughters’ picky eating, daughters’ dietary intake, weight status, and body composition were assessed when they were 9 years old (9.3±0.3). Data obtained when the girls were 7 years old were predictors in the model; data from the girls at age 9 were used for outcome measures in the model and for assessing differences between picky and nonpicky eaters.
Results
For the total sample, as shown in Table 1, girls’ mean daily energy intake was within the recommended range for 9-year-olds and they met recommendations for macronutrient intake. Dietary fiber was less than recommended levels; none of the girls met recommendations (17). Girls’ mean intakes of most vitamins and minerals met recommendations except for vitamin E, calcium, and magnesium, which were less than recommended levels (see Table 2). Girls’ vitamin and mineral intakes were compared EARs to
Discussion
Regardless of whether girls were classified as picky eaters, most girls consumed less-than-recommended amounts of grains, fruits, vegetables, and meats; however, picky girls consumed significantly fewer servings of fruits, vegetables, fats, and sweets than girls who were not picky eaters. Fiber intake followed the same pattern. These results suggest that picky eaters did not consume more fats and sweets to compensate for lower fruit and vegetable intake.
The micronutrient intakes of both groups
Conclusions
These data indicate that the diets of picky and nonpicky eaters were more similar than they were different and suggest that increasing fruit and vegetable intake among all children should continue to be a major focus of interventions. Anticipatory guidance should provide parents with strategies that promote children’s acceptance of a variety of foods, especially fruits and vegetables, particularly increasing availability and modeling fruit and vegetable intake, while discouraging parents from
A. T. Galloway is an assistant professor with the Department of Psychology, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC.
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2023, AppetiteCitation Excerpt :Implementing different vegetable feeding strategies may encourage parents to serve vegetables in new ways at home, whilst also encouraging children to taste, try and eat vegetable portions that are served. Parents that have children who express traits of food avoidance (food fussiness, slowness in eating and satiety responsiveness; Tharner et al., 2014) may experience the greatest benefit from employing vegetable feeding strategies, as food avoidant children often have lower intakes of vegetables than non-food avoidant children (Cardona Cano et al., 2015; Galloway, Fiorito, Lee, & Birch, 2005; Haszard, Skidmore, Williams, & Taylor, 2015; Taylor, Wernimont, Northstone, & Emmett, 2015). This has been attributed to food avoidance traits being underpinned by similar genetic mechanisms to liking of vegetables (Fildes, van Jaarsveld, Cooke, Wardle, & Llewellyn, 2016) and children tend not to eat foods that are disliked (Keller, Shehan, Cravener, Schlechter, & Hayes, 2022).
A. T. Galloway is an assistant professor with the Department of Psychology, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC.
L. Fiorito is a research assistant and L. L. Birch is a distinguished professor of Human Development with the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
Y. Lee is an invited senior researcher, Nutrition Research Team, Department of Health Care Industry, Korean Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), Seoul, South Korea.