Observed Differences in Child Picky Eating Behaviors Between the Child's Home and Center‐ or Home‐based Childcare

Abstract

Picky eating (PE), which typically defined as having low dietary variety and rejecting new and familiar foods, is a commonly reported problematic eating behavior that emerges during early childhood. PE causes parental concern and has been linked to lack of dietary variety and increased risk of depression, underweight, and developing an eating disorder in the child. Traditionally, parents have been primarily responsible for determining their child's dietary intake. However, the number of children placed in non‐parental, i.e., center‐based childcare (CBC) or home‐based childcare (HBC), has risen substantially, increasing care providers’ influence on the development of children's eating behaviors. Currently little is known about PE behaviors manifested by the child across the home and childcare settings. Furthermore, most research in the area of early childcare focuses on CBC, although 15% of children in non‐parental childcare are cared for in HBC. Therefore, the objective of this research was to investigate observed child PE behaviors across settings, while controlling for the food provided to the child in each setting. Children, ages 3–5 years, were recruited from a CBC (n=26) or HBC (n=24) childcare locations in the Champaign‐Urbana area. Children were videotaped consuming two different lunchtime meals in both their home and childcare for a total of 200 observed mealtimes. Physical and verbal food refusals and avoidances were coded from the videos as PE behaviors. Inter‐rater reliability of Cohen's Kappa >0.90 was achieved for all coders. The McNemar test results revealed that children in CBC expressed all PE behaviors more often at home than at childcare (P<0.0001). Children in HBC expressed more physical refusals and verbal avoidances at home compared to their childcare location (P<0.0001). However, there was no significant difference in the number of verbal refusals between home and HBC and significantly more physical avoidances at HBC than home (P<0.001). Thus, children were observed to respond differently to the same foods based on the mealtime location, and, overall, expressed more PE behaviors at home than in either childcare setting. The findings from this study add to the knowledge base of child eating behaviors and can be used to create specialized, location‐specific intervention and education programs with the goal of raising healthy, independent eaters.Support or Funding InformationChristopher Family Foundation Food and Family Program.