Trajectories of Picky Eating in Low-Income US Children

Abstract

Picky eating is common, yet little is known about trajectories of picky eating in childhood. Our objectives were to examine trajectories of child picky eating in low-income US children from ages 4 to 9 years and associations of those trajectories with participant characteristics, including child BMI z score (BMIz) and maternal feeding-behavior trajectories. Mother-child dyads (N = 317) provided anthropometry and reported on picky eating and maternal feeding behaviors via questionnaires at child ages 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9 years. At baseline, mothers reported on demographics and child emotional regulation. Trajectories of picky eating and maternal feeding behaviors were identified by using latent class analysis. Bivariate analyses examined associations of picky-eating trajectory membership with baseline characteristics and maternal feeding-behavior trajectory memberships. A linear mixed model was used to examine the association of BMIz with picky-eating trajectories. Three trajectories of picky eating emerged: persistently low (n = 92; 29%), persistently medium (n = 181; 57%), and persistently high (n = 44; 14%). Membership in the high picky-eating trajectory was associated with higher child emotional lability and lower child emotional regulation. Picky eating was associated with restriction (P = .01) and demandingness (P < .001) trajectory memberships, such that low picky eating was associated with low restriction and high picky eating was associated with high demandingness. Medium and high picky-eating trajectories were associated with lower BMIz. Picky eating appears to be traitlike in childhood and may be protective against higher BMIz.