Food Avoidance Behavior Research Articles

Study of the Relation between Parenting Style and Attitude with Physical Activity, Diet Behavior and Health of Children (10-13 Years): A Descriptive Cross - Sectional Study

Background. Due to the significant and Irrefutable effects of parental style on children and the lack of a comprehensive studies on this topic, the present study aimed to study the relation between parenting style and attitude with physical activity, diet behavior and health of children (10-13 years).
 
 Materials and Methods. This study is a descriptive cross - sectional study and conducted in schools located in Manipal and Udupi (Karnataka, India) during May 2017 to November 2017. A well designed questionnaire was administrated to children which included general information, along with physical activity questionnaire. The questionnaire also comprised of various other anthropometric measurements like BMI, MUAC, and Waist hip Circumferences etc. The data collected was subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS version 21. BMI has been calculated using anthroplus 1.0.4.
 
 Results. The results of this study showed that there is a significant relationship between parenting style and diet behavior of the child (P< 0.001). Parents with stylistic dimension in both authoritative and authoritarian have more influence on child for food avoidance and food approach. Studies shows an association between authoritarian and permissive parenting style with food approach behaviors and child weight status of children. parenting style is not affected on Childs physical activity. 74.8% of variation in weight is explained by the independent factors like parenting style, Nutrient intake, Food group intake, Physical activity level, Anthropometric measurement, and child eating behaviour questionnaire. There was a significant relationship between weight and these factors at 1 % level (F=32.889, P< 0.001).
 
 Conclusions. In conclusion, parents with stylistic dimension in both authoritarian and permissive style of parenting and parents with stylistic dimensions in all type of parenting style influences child physical activity. Parents with stylistic dimension in both authoritative and authoritarian have more influence on child for food avoidance and food approach behavior.

The effect of sugar-sweetened beverages at 4 years of age on appetitive behaviours of 7-year-olds from the Generation XXI birth cohort.

The consumption of energy-dense sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) and its low satiating effects may influence the development of child eating behaviours. We aimed to investigate the association of SSB consumption at 4 years on appetitive behaviours at age 7 years. Children from the Generation XXI birth cohort were included (n 3880). SSB consumption was evaluated through a FFQ and appetitive behaviours were evaluated through the Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire, which includes eight subscales. Two composite factors, derived by principal component analysis (Appetite Restraint - related to Food Fussiness, Enjoyment of Food, Slowness in Eating and Satiety Responsiveness - and Appetite Disinhibition - related to Food Responsiveness, Emotional Under- and Overeating and Desire to Drink), were also investigated. The dose-response relationship between SSB consumption and appetitive behaviours was examined using multivariable linear regression (continuous eating behaviour scores) and multinomial logistic regression (tertile categories of eating behaviour scores). Child SSB consumption at 4 years was associated with higher Appetite Disinhibition and Desire to Drink and lower Food Fussiness and Slowness in Eating at 7 years. Consuming SSB ≥1 times/d (compared with a lower intake) was associated with 29 % increase in the odds of Desire to Drink (3rd v. 1st tertile). Pre-schoolers' SSB consumption was associated with higher food approach and less food avoidant behaviours later in childhood. Family characteristics, particularly maternal SSB consumption, explained part of these associations. It is essential to promote the intake of water, instead of sugary drinks, and make parents and caregivers aware of the importance of this exposure, since they have a pivotal role in shaping children's eating behaviours.

FSHD / OPMD / MYOTONIC DYSTROPHY: P.236 Spectrum and impact on quality of life of gastrointestinal disorders in myotonic dystrophy type 1

Gastro-intestinal disorders in myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) are poorly understood and often overlooked by the medical community. The aim of this study is to describe gastro-intestinal manifestations of DM1 patients, to assess the impact on quality of life (GIQLI scale) and to identify factors associated. Thirty-two patients were included. Fifty percent reported digestive troubles. Abdominal pain and diarrhea were the most frequently reported ones (62% and 81% respectively). We did not find any factor linked to the presence of these disorders: (i) the duration of progression of the pathology, (ii) the level of CTG expansion, (iii) the degree of handicap or even (iv) the extra-neurological (cardiac and ophthalmological) involvement. However, this study allowed us to identify food avoidance behaviors (mainly dairy products and fibers) in 69% of cases (n = 11) and self-medication in 81% of cases (n = 13). Patients quality of life is altered with an average GIQLI scale at 63 (general population: 126) leading to depression feelings (78%) and a feeling of misunderstanding of the relatives (50%). The presence of gastro-intestinal disorders is very frequent in the DM1 population, prompting us to continue this study on a larger number of patients. Pathophysiological studies would permit to better understand their origin, e.g. damage to smooth muscles or microbiota alteration?

The association between oral health and food avoidance among older adults in the United States

ObjectivesThis study examines the association between oral health and food avoidance among older adults in the United States. Study designA population-based sample of 1,278 adults aged 51+ from the Health and Retirement Study was used. A logistic regression model was performed to evaluate various oral health conditions and food avoidance behavior among older adults. Results were quantified as odds ratios (OR). ResultsThis study found a significant association between oral health and food avoidance in older adults. Individuals with teeth loss, poor self-rated oral health, and teeth or gum sensitivity experienced more food avoidance. ConclusionsGeriatric health care professionals assessing older adults’ well-being can be informed by this study outcome to consider oral health as a potential risk factor for food avoidance. This study can inform policymakers to develop oral health promotion programs and goals for older adults, and also consider nutritional support for older adults with negative oral health conditions.

Fermentable carbohydrate intake and food avoidance behaviour in elderly patients with irritable bowel syndrome: A case report

Background: Fermentable carbohydrates or FODMAPs (Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, Monosaccharides, and Polyols) are short-chained, poorly absorbed carbohydrates which trigger gastrointestinal symptoms causing pain, bloating, distension, diarrhea, and constipation in Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) patients. This debilitating condition has an impact on the quality of life of patients. In addition, due to lack of dietary intervention, it can result in food restriction to alleviate symptoms as patients avoid a wide variety of food and beverages. Objective: To compare FODMAP and nutrient intake, food avoidance behavior and quality of life in 2 long standing patients with IBS. Methods: Patients were selected on the basis of being diagnosed with IBS by a gastroenterologist. A 24-hour dietary recall with multiple pass method was used to assess intake. FODMAP intake was determined using published data. Symptom severity and quality of life was measured using a validated questionnaire. Meanwhile, food avoidance was assessed using a dietary trigger piloted questionnaire. Results: Two female Chinese patients with severe gastrointestinal symptoms were selected for this case series. Patient 1 was a 75-year-old female presenting with constipation-predominant IBS and patient 2 was a 61-year-old presenting with diarrhea-predominant IBS. Patient 1 had a higher energy intake: 2198 kcal, and FODMAP intake 10.6g/d, compared to patient 2 with an energy and FODMAP intake of 1800 kcal and 3.6g/d respectively. Both patients avoided a wide of range of food groups including cereals and grains, animal products, dairy and spicy foods. They also reported reduced scores for quality of life. Conclusion: Both patients had low intake of calcium as a result of food avoidance. This highlights the importance of appropriate and timely dietary intervention to this group of patients, to promote improved symptom management without compromising nutrient intake.

Mothers’ eating style’s influence on their feeding practices and on their children’s appetite traits

Background: Overweight and obesity in children and adolescents has become an important public health concern in the last decades. To study the way mothers and children’s behavioral factors interact with each other, influencing eating and body weight, may provide information to be used in preventive and treatment strategies.Goals: To study the association of mothers’ eating style on their feeding behavior and on their children’s eating behavior.Methods: Cross-sectional observational study with a non-probabilistic sample of mother and child dyads (from three schools). Mothers’ eating behavior (assessed with Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire scale; DEBQ) was classified and they were grouped into three eating styles: restrictive, emotional-external or neutral styles. Mothers’ feeding restriction, pressure to eat and concern about child’s weight were assessed (through the Child Feeding Questionnaire; CFQ). Finally, mothers classified their child’s appetite behaviors (with the Children’s Eating Behaviour Questionnaire; CEBQ).Results: Overall, participated 279 mothers, aged between 23 and 59 years (Mean= 38.03 years, SD=5.09) and respective children (n=279), aged between 6 and 13 years (Mean= 9.43 years, SD= 1.35), 140 of those were females (50.2 %). Associations between mothers’ eating style, their feeding behaviors and children’s appetite traits showed that restrictive and emotional-external eating mothers had higher scores of CFQ and CEBQ items related with obesity, when compared to neutral eating style mothers. Mothers’ feeding restriction and children’s weight concern associated positively with children’s food approach behaviors (enjoyment of food, food responsiveness, emotional over-eating), and negatively with food avoidance behaviors (satiety responsiveness and slowness in eating). On the contrary, pressure to eat associated positively with food avoidance behaviors and negatively with food approach behaviors. Mother´s concern about child weight and feeding restriction were positively associated with CEBQ subscales that reflect food approach and negatively associated with subscales that reflect food avoidance. Pressure to eat had the symmetric associations. Discussion: Results support the hypothesis of the transmission of eating behaviors that promote obesity from mothers to children, and have implications both for prevention and children and adolescents’ obesity treatment. Therefore, mothers should be a part of the intervention when treating their children obesity

P2B.18: Feeding difficulties in children with Intestinal Failure

Introduction: Children with intestinal failure (IF) may be at risk for developing feeding difficulties given the negative stimuli associated with feeding, chronic illness and prolonged hospitalization. There is no literature on the prevalence of feeding difficulties in the IF population, its associated factors or intervention strategies. As a first step, we sought to screen for the frequency of the feeding difficulties and eating behaviours in children and herein provide the results of a preliminary sample. Methods:Children who were greater than 1 year of age with IF and on home PN for > 3 months were included from two centres: Alberta Children’s Hospital (ACH), Canada and Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, France. The validated MCH-Feeding Scale was used to screen for mild, moderate and severe feeding difficulty. The validated parent-rated Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) was used to screen for eating styles and food avoidant behaviours. Results: Preliminary data was gathered for n=34 subjects, median age 6 years with diagnoses of short bowel syndrome (n=22), chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction (n=4), or other (n=8). Analysis of the MCH-Feeding Scale indicated that 24% of the subjects had no feeding difficulty, while 29%, 18%, and 29% reported mild, moderate and severe difficulty respectively. The subset of n=21 completing the CEBQ rated very high on food fussiness, very high on food enjoyment and very low for emotional over-eating relative to the UK reference sample (Fig 1). In particular, the ACH children scored very high on satiety responsiveness. Conclusions: Preliminary data indicate that approximately half of children with IF have moderate to severe eating difficulties. Interestingly, both food fussiness and enjoyment of food are more commonly featured eating behaviours in this sample. It is unclear whether the feeding difficulties of children with IF are related to the impact of the disease etiology and severity, early feeding history, degree of gastrointestinal symptomatology and/or attempts to assert some control. Future work will examine how IF specific factors including the use of tube feeds are associated with feeding difficulties.

Food Avoidance Beliefs and Behaviors Among Chinese Cancer Patients: Validation of a New Measurement Tool

ObjectiveRestrictive food avoidance behavior among Chinese cancer patients is common. Yet, to the authors’ knowledge, no study has investigated factors associated with such behavior. This study attempted to validate a new measurement tool, the Cancer Patients Food Avoidance Behaviors Scale (CPFAB), that assessed cancer patients’ belief regarding 5 perceived benefits of practicing food avoidance, and to test its applicability. DesignCross-sectional face-to-face interviews. SettingTwo outpatient oncology clinics in 2 different districts of Hong Kong. ParticipantsA total of 245 patients with nasopharyngeal and colorectal cancer. Main Outcome MeasuresAssessment of psychometric properties of the CPFAB. AnalysisPrincipal components method with oblique (Promax) rotations was performed to investigate the factor structure of the CPFAB. ResultsPsychometric properties, which included test-retest intraclass correlations (mean = 0.72; SD = 0.12), Cronbach α (.88–.94), floor (0.4% to 5.7%) and ceiling (0% to 7.3%) effects, and item-subscale (0.67–0.79) and subscale-total (0.68–0.89) correlations, were satisfactory. Conclusions and ImplicationsThe CPFAB, a new instrument used to assess food avoidance, was developed and validated. It showed satisfactory psychometric properties and can be used to evaluate interventions that seek to modify food avoidance attitudes among cancer patients.

Asymmetric Arginine Dimethylation Modulates Mitochondrial Energy Metabolism and Homeostasis in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Protein arginine methyltransferase 1 (PRMT-1) catalyzes asymmetric arginine dimethylation on cellular proteins and modulates various aspects of biological processes, such as signal transduction, DNA repair, and transcriptional regulation. We have previously reported that the null mutant of prmt-1 in Caenorhabditis elegans exhibits a slightly shortened life span, but the physiological significance of PRMT-1 remains largely unclear. Here we explored the role of PRMT-1 in mitochondrial function as hinted by a two-dimensional Western blot-based proteomic study. Subcellular fractionation followed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis showed that PRMT-1 is almost entirely responsible for asymmetric arginine dimethylation on mitochondrial proteins. Importantly, isolated mitochondria from prmt-1 mutants represent compromised ATP synthesis in vitro, and whole-worm respiration in prmt-1 mutants is decreased in vivo Transgenic rescue experiments demonstrate that PRMT-1-dependent asymmetric arginine dimethylation is required to prevent mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, which consequently causes the activation of the mitochondrial unfolded-protein response. Furthermore, the loss of enzymatic activity of prmt-1 induces food avoidance behavior due to mitochondrial dysfunction, but treatment with the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine significantly ameliorates this phenotype. These findings add a new layer of complexity to the posttranslational regulation of mitochondrial function and provide clues for understanding the physiological roles of PRMT-1 in multicellular organisms.

Caffeine-induced food-avoidance behavior is mediated by neuroendocrine signals in Caenorhabditis elegans.

High-dose caffeine uptake is a developmental stressor and causes food-avoidance behavior (aversion phenotype) in C. elegans, but its mode of action is largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the molecular basis of the caffeine-induced aversion behavior in C. elegans. We found that aversion phenotype induced by 30 mM caffeine was mediated by JNK/MAPK pathway, serotonergic and dopaminergic neuroendocrine signals. In this process, the dopaminergic signaling appears to be the major pathway because the reduced aversion behavior in cat-2 mutants and mutants of JNK/MAPK pathway genes was significantly recovered by pretreatment with dopamine. RNAi depletion of hsp-16.2, a cytosolic chaperone, and cyp-35A family reduced the aversion phenotype, which was further reduced in cat-2 mutants, suggesting that dopaminergic signal is indeed dominantly required for the caffeine-induced food aversion. Our findings suggest that aversion behavior is a defense mechanism for worms to survive under the high-dose caffeine conditions.

Identifying eating behavior phenotypes and their correlates: A novel direction toward improving weight management interventions

Common reports of over-response to food cues, difficulties with calorie restriction, and difficulty adhering to dietary guidelines suggest that eating behaviors could be interrelated in ways that influence weight management efforts. The feasibility of identifying robust eating phenotypes (showing face, content, and criterion validity) was explored based on well-validated individual eating behavior assessments. Adults (n = 260; mean age 34 years) completed online questionnaires with measurements of nine eating behaviors including: appetite for palatable foods, binge eating, bitter taste sensitivity, disinhibition, food neophobia, pickiness and satiety responsiveness. Discovery-based visualization procedures that have the combined strengths of heatmaps and hierarchical clustering were used to investigate: 1) how eating behaviors cluster, 2) how participants can be grouped within eating behavior clusters, and 3) whether group clustering is associated with body mass index (BMI) and dietary self-efficacy levels. Two distinct eating behavior clusters and participant groups that aligned within these clusters were identified: one with higher drive to eat and another with food avoidance behaviors. Participants’ BMI (p = 0.0002) and dietary self-efficacy (p < 0.0001) were associated with cluster membership. Eating behavior clusters showed content and criterion validity based on their association with BMI (associated, but not entirely overlapping) and dietary self-efficacy. Identifying eating behavior phenotypes appears viable. These efforts could be expanded and ultimately inform tailored weight management interventions.

Caffeine Induces the Stress Response and Up-Regulates Heat Shock Proteins in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Caffeine has both positive and negative effects on physiological functions in a dose-dependent manner. C. elegans has been used as an animal model to investigate the effects of caffeine on development. Caffeine treatment at a high dose (30 mM) showed detrimental effects and caused early larval arrest. We performed a comparative proteomic analysis to investigate the mode of action of high-dose caffeine treatment in C. elegans and found that the stress response proteins, heat shock protein (HSP)-4 (endoplasmic reticulum [ER] chaperone), HSP-6 (mitochondrial chaperone), and HSP-16 (cytosolic chaperone), were induced and their expression was regulated at the transcriptional level. These findings suggest that high-dose caffeine intake causes a strong stress response and activates all three stress-response pathways in the worms, including the ER-, mitochondrial-, and cytosolic pathways. RNA interference of each hsp gene or in triple combination retarded growth. In addition, caffeine treatment stimulated a food-avoidance behavior (aversion phenotype), which was enhanced by RNAi depletion of the hsp-4 gene. Therefore, up-regulation of hsp genes after caffeine treatment appeared to be the major responses to alleviate stress and protect against developmental arrest.

Imbalance in Resting State Functional Connectivity is Associated with Eating Behaviors and Adiposity in Children.

Background and HypothesisOver the past 30 years, childhood obesity in the US has nearly doubled, while obesity has tripled among adolescents. Non-homeostatic eating, influenced by impulsivity and inhibition, may undermine successful long-term weight loss. We hypothesized that unhealthy eating habits and adiposity among children are associated with functional connectivity between brain regions associated with impulsivity, response inhibition, and reward.MethodsWe analyzed resting state functional magnetic resonance images from 38 children, ages 8–13. Using seed-based resting state functional connectivity, we quantified connectivity between brain regions associated with response inhibition (inferior parietal lobe [IPL]), impulsivity (frontal pole), and reward (nucleus accumbens [NAc]). We assessed the relationship of resting state functional connectivity with adiposity, quantified by BMI z-score, and eating behaviors, as measured by the Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ). We computed an imbalance measure—the difference between [frontal pole:NAC] and [ipl:nac] functional connectivity—and investigated the relationship of this imbalance with eating behaviors and adiposity.ResultsAs functional connectivity imbalance is increasingly biased toward impulsivity, adiposity increases. Similarly, as impulsivity-biased imbalance increases, food approach behaviors increase and food avoidance behaviors decrease. Increased adiposity is associated with increased food approach behaviors and decreased food avoidance behaviors.ConclusionsIn the absence of any explicit eating-related stimuli, the developing brain is primed toward food approach and away from food avoidance behavior with increasing adiposity. Imbalance in resting state functional connectivity that is associated with non-homeostatic eating develops during childhood, as early as 8–13 years of age. Our results indicate the importance of identifying children at risk for obesity for earlier intervention. In addition to changing eating habits and physical activity, strategies that normalize neural functional connectivity imbalance are needed to maintain healthy weight. Mindfulness may be one such approach as it is associated with increased response inhibition and decreased impulsivity.

Is there an association between eating behaviour and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms in preschool children?

There is some evidence that aberrant eating behaviours and obesity co-occur with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. The present study is the first that aims to investigate the association between eating behaviours and ADHD symptoms in early childhood in a population-based cohort. We included 471 preschool children from the Rhea mother-child cohort in Crete, Greece. Parents completed the Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire to assess children's eating behaviour and the 36-item ADHD test (ADHDT) to evaluate ADHD symptoms at 4years of age. Multivariable linear regression models were used to examine the association of eating behaviours with ADHD symptoms. Regarding children's food approach eating behaviours, we observed a positive association between food responsiveness and total ADHD index, as well as impulsivity, inattention and hyperactivity subscale, separately. Similarly, there was a significant positive association between emotional overeating and ADHD symptoms. With regard to children's food avoidant behaviours, food fussiness was found to be significantly associated with the impulsivity subscale. A dose-response association between the food approach behaviours and ADHD symptoms was also observed. Children on the medium and highest tertile of the food responsiveness subscale had increased scores on the ADHD total scale, as compared to those on the lowest tertile. As regards emotional overeating, children in the highest tertile of the scale had higher scores on ADHD total and hyperactivity. Our findings provide evidence that food approach eating behaviours such as food responsiveness and emotional overeating are associated with the increased ADHD symptoms in preschool children. Future studies to better understand this overlap will enhance potential interventions.

Achalasia Masking as Mild Intermittent Asthma: Acute Respiratory Failure, Aspiration Pneumonia, and Pneumothorax in a Teenage Girl

SESSION TITLE: Pediatrics and Congenital Cases SESSION TYPE: Affiliate Case Report Slide PRESENTED ON: Tuesday, October 27, 2015 at 07:30 AM - 08:30 AM INTRODUCTION: Primary achalasia is a rare esophageal motility disorder caused by failure of the lower esophageal sphincter to relax. Childhood achalasia is often misdiagnosed as gastroesophageal reflux, failure to thrive, eating disorder or asthma. CASE PRESENTATION: A 16-year-old girl presented with three days of vomiting, abdominal pain, and fever. She was diagnosed 3 years earlier with asthma and pneumonia, and had similar abdominal pain 6 months ago. For the past year, she sometimes felt short of breath swallowing solids. Initial vital signs were T 105.9°F, HR 176 bpm, RR 40/min, BP 74/54 mmHg, and O2 saturation 59%. After intubation for severe respiratory distress, copious thick yellow tracheal secretions grew E. coli. Labs showed leukocytosis, bandemia and elevated inflammatory markers. CXR showed bilateral infiltrates and widened mediastinum (Image 1). A follow-up CXR revealed a medial right air bubble, and a chest tube was placed. As the air bubble did not resolve, CT chest obtained showed severe esophageal distension, tracheal compression, basilar consolidations, and bronchiectasis (Image 2). She was diagnosed with achalasia with aspiration pneumonitis when a barium swallow demonstrated complete esophageal dilatation and absent peristalsis. After laparoscopic Heller's myotomy with partial fundoplication, she improved dramatically and went home with anti-reflux medicines and inhaled corticosteroids. DISCUSSION: With an incidence of 1.6/100,000, childhood achalasia presents with progressive dysphagia first to solids and then liquids. Diagnosis is delayed on average by five years. Older children may complain of reflux, sore throat, hoarseness, choking, or dypsnea, and develop food avoidance behaviors. Younger children and infants may have feeding problems and respiratory symptoms such as chronic or nocturnal cough, recurrent respiratory infections, wheezing, stridor, or acute upper airway obstruction. Preferred treatment is laparoscopic Heller's myotomy. Lung complications from chronic aspiration include obliterative bronchiolitis, abscess, empyema and fibrosis. CONCLUSIONS: Childhood achalasia should be on the differential when suspecting asthma or gastroesophageal reflux. Careful history taking is paramount. Mediastinal widening is present in achalasia but not asthma. Achalasia often results in lung injury due to chronic aspiration. Reference #1: Franklin AL, et al. Childhood achalasia: A comprehensive review of disease, diagnosis and therapeutic management. World J Gastrointest Endosc. 2014 Apr 16;6(4):105-11. DISCLOSURE: The following authors have nothing to disclose: Khanh Lai, Mini Mehra, Eliezer Nussbaum No Product/Research Disclosure Information

Eating behaviour and weight status at 2 years of age: data from the Cork BASELINE Birth Cohort Study.

To conduct an analysis of associations between eating behaviours and weight status in 2-year-old children. Data were collected prospectively in the maternal-infant dyad Cork BASELINE Birth Cohort Study. The weight status of children aged 2 years (n=1189) was assigned using the International Obesity Task Force BMI cutoffs using measured heights and weights. Eating behaviours were assessed using the Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ). Eighty percent of children were of normal weight, 14% were overweight or obese and 6% were underweight. From the CEBQ, food approach behaviours including Enjoyment of Food (odds ratio (OR)=1.90, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.46-2.48) and Food Responsiveness (OR=1.73, 95% CI=1.47-2.03) were associated with overweight/obesity (all P<0.001). The food avoidant behaviours of Satiety Responsiveness (OR=2.03, 95% CI=1.38-2.98) and Slowness in Eating (OR=1.44, 95% CI=1.01-2.04) were associated with underweight at 2 years (all P<0.05). Eating behaviours are associated with weight status as early as 2 years of age.

The influence of hot and cool executive function on the development of eating styles related to overweight in children

Studies linking executive function (EF) and overweight suggest that a broad range of executive functions might influence weight via obesity-related behaviors, such as particular eating styles. Currently, however, longitudinal studies investigating this assumption in children are rare. We hypothesized that lower hot and cool EF predicts a stronger increase in eating styles related to greater weight gain (food approach) and a weaker increase in eating styles related to less weight gain (food avoidance) over a 1-year period. Hot (delay of gratification, affective decision-making) and cool (attention shifting, inhibition, working memory updating) EF was assessed experimentally in a sample of 1657 elementary-school children (German school classes 1–3) at two time points, approximately one year apart. The children's food-approach and food-avoidance behavior was rated mainly via parent questionnaires at both time points. As expected, lower levels of hot and cool EF predicted a stronger increase in several food-approach eating styles across a 1-year period, mainly in girls. Unexpectedly, poorer performance on the affective decision-making task also predicted an increase in certain food-avoidance styles, namely, slowness in eating and satiety responsiveness, in girls. Results implicate that lower EF is not only seen in eating-disordered or obese individuals but also acts as a risk factor for an increase in particular eating styles that play a role in the development of weight problems in children.

Child Eating Behaviors and Caregiver Feeding Practices in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

This pilot study compared children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and typically developing children (TDC) on weight-related outcomes and caregiver-reported child eating behaviors and feeding practices. Cross-sectional study. Caregivers of 25 children with ASD and 30 TDC, ages 4-6. Caregivers completed validated questionnaires that assessed child eating behaviors and feeding practices. Children's height, weight, and waist circumference were measured. Children with ASD, when compared to TDC, showed significantly greater abdominal waist circumferences (p = .01) and waist-to-height ratios (p < .001). Children with ASD with atypical oral sensory sensitivity exhibited greater food avoidance behaviors, including reluctance to eat novel foods (p = .004), being selective about the range of foods they accept (p = .03), and undereating due to negative emotions (p = .02), than children with ASD with typical oral sensory sensitivity. Caregivers of children with ASD with atypical oral sensory sensitivity reported using food to regulate negative child emotions to a greater extent than caregivers of children with typical oral sensory sensitivity (p = .02). Children with ASD, especially those with atypical oral sensory sensitivity, are at increased risk for food avoidance behaviors and may require additional support in several feeding domains.

The fear of food measure: a novel measure for use in exposure therapy for eating disorders.

Exposure therapy for mealtime anxiety has preliminarily been effective at increasing food intake and decreasing anxiety in individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN). To enhance our knowledge of exposure therapy for AN researchers and clinicians need a comprehensive measure that assesses outcomes relevant to exposure therapy for AN. In the current four studies we developed Fear of Food Measure (FOFM) that assesses three cognitive and behavioral outcomes: trait anxiety about eating, food avoidance behaviors, and feared concerns related to eating. In a community (N = 399) and undergraduate female sample (N = 203) the FOFM exhibited a good three-factor structure and convergent and divergent validity. In a sample of women (N = 72) we showed that the anxiety about eating subscale significantly predicted in vivo food intake over and above other established predictors of eating (e.g., restraint). In a clinical sample diagnosed with an eating disorder (N = 41) we showed that anxiety about eating was associated with food intake and anxiety during an exposure meal and that all subscales of the FOFM significantly decreased over the course of a four-session exposure intervention. Finally, we found that participants diagnosed with an eating disorder had higher levels of fear of food than did matched controls (N = 23). The FOFM is a psychometrically valid measure that can assess if patients are improving while undergoing exposure therapy and could be used to pinpoint problematic behaviors that can be addressed in exposure therapy.

Critical Period of Memory Enhancement during Taste Avoidance Conditioning in Lymnaea stagnalis

The present study investigated the optimal training procedure leading to long-lasting taste avoidance behavior in Lymnaea. A training procedure comprising 5 repeated pairings of a conditional stimulus (CS, sucrose), with an unconditional stimulus (US, a tactile stimulation to the animal’s head), over a 4-day period resulted in an enhanced memory formation than 10 CS-US repeated pairings over a 2-day period or 20 CS-US repeated pairings on a single day. Backward conditioning (US-CS) pairings did not result in conditioning. Thus, this taste avoidance conditioning was CS-US pairing specific. Food avoidance behavior was not observed following training, however, if snails were immediately subjected to a cold-block (4°C for 10 min). It was critical that the cold-block be applied within 10 min to block long-term memory (LTM) formation. Further, exposure to the cold-block 180 min after training also blocked both STM and LTM formation. The effects of the cold-block on subsequent learning and memory formation were also examined. We found no long lasting effects of the cold-block on subsequent memory formation. If protein kinase C was activated before the conditioning paradigm, snails could still acquire STM despite exposure to the cold-block.