The Short and Long-term Impact of Coercive Feeding Strategies on Children

1. The Short and Long-term Impact of Coercive Feeding Strategies on Children Holly Bante, B.A., Amanda Harrod, M.P.H., Michael Elliott, Ph.D., Debra Haire-Joshu, Ph.D. Background Prevalence of obesity among children is high and increasing. Parental feeding practices may promote overweight in children and adversely affect a child’s ability to develop food preferences. “Clean your plate”, One-Bite rule, and reward systems may undermine the child’s ability to self-regulate food intake, altering the natural response to internal satiety cues. Fruit and vegetable preferences have been shown to be significant predictors of fruit and vegetable intake. Results • Application • Child-feeding practices impact food preferences and intake. • Interventions need to address the factors that determine food preferences during early development to increase lifelong consumption. • Efforts should be made to: • Identify aspects of the family environment that may lead to obesigenic patterns. • Identify the link between coercive feeding strategies and childhood overweight and obesity. Specific Aim The High 5 for Kids is a community based program designed to intervene with parents to promote their preschool children’s (age 3-5) preference for and intake of fruits and vegetables. Demographics Acknowledgments This project was funded by the National Cancer Institute. This work was completed in collaboration with educators and families from Parents as Teachers. *Significant only for children whose parents reported frequently using rewards to encourage them to try new foods Short-term: Children of coercive parents consumed higher amounts of fruits and vegetables than children of non-coercive parents. Long-term: FV preferences were similar between children of both coercive and non-coercive parents. Although parents who used coercive strategies were successful in increasing consumption of FV in the short-term, once those children leave that environment, long-term intake of FV may decrease as preferences for FV did not change.