Child appetite tends to improve over time

Appetitive traits in children tend to change as they grow older, with those related to increased food intake improving through the years and those associated with food avoidance diminishing, suggests a recent study.

“Food approach appetitive traits increased over time, whereas food avoidant appetitive traits tended to decrease,” the researchers said. “At both time points ‘Food Fussiness’ and ‘Desire to Drink” were inversely associated with [the] Healthy Eating Index (HEI).”

Secondary analyses were carried out on the ROLO longitudinal birth cohort study, which included mother-child dyads from the 5- and 9‒11-year-old follow-up.

The researchers used the Children’s Eating Behaviour Questionnaire to measure child appetitive traits, with 167 children having matched data for the two timepoints, and the HEI to measure diet quality. They also used linear mixed models and multiple linear regression.

From 5 to 9‒11 years, the mean scores increased for ‘Emotional Overeating’ (1.63 vs 1.99; p<0.001) and ‘Enjoyment of Food (3.79 vs 3.98; p<0.001), while those for ‘Desire to Drink’ (2.63 vs 2.45; p=0.01), ‘Satiety Responsiveness (3.07 vs 2.71; p<0.001), ‘Slowness Eating’ (3.02 vs 2.64; p<0.001), and ‘Food Fussiness’ (3.00 vs 2.81; p=0.001) decreased. [Eur J Clin Nutr 2024;78:607-614]

At age 5 years, children’s ‘Food Responsiveness’ and ‘Enjoyment of Food’ showed a positive association with HEI, while their ‘Desire to Drink’, ‘Satiety Responsiveness’, and ‘Food Fussiness’ negatively correlated with HEI. At age 9‒11 years, ‘Enjoyment of Food’ had positive and ‘Desire to Drink’ and ‘Food Fussiness’ had negative associations with HEI.

“Our results showing an increase in ‘food approach’ appetitive traits over time, concur with previous studies,” the researchers said. [Eur J Clin Nutr 2008;62:985-990; Int J Obes 2020;44:1766-1775]

Eating patterns

A population-based birth cohort study explored the trajectory of appetitive traits and their connection to BMI from 1‒10 years old and identified three eating patterns, namely ‘overeating’, ‘undereating’, and ‘fussy eating’. Overeating was generally low but elevated over the years, while undereating and fussy eating varied across time. [Int J Obes 2020;44:1766-1775]

“Our observation of an increase in mean scores for ‘food approach’ appetitive traits may relate to the fact that with age, children gain greater autonomy over what they eat and drink and may be influenced by peers, especially if eating outside the home,” the researchers said.

“Increased ‘Enjoyment of Food’ at the older timepoint may suggest better acceptance of a greater variety of foods due to increased food exposure over time,” they added.

The current study was limited by its small sample size and exploratory design, as well as a potential selection bias. The use of self-reported questionnaires also has the potential for social desirability bias.

“Further research is warranted to gain a better understanding of how appetitive traits track through childhood and how they relate to diet quality,” the researchers said. “This could help to provide guidance for intervention strategies for children who present with excess adiposity or problematic food avoidance.”