Early experiences and parenting practices in shaping eating habits and food preferences

Project overview

The studies investigate two aspects of eating behaviour and food preference:

1. How children’s food preferences of different items affect parent’s served portion sizes at mealtimes. Insights from this work illustrate that parents mostly make portion size decisions based on whether they think their child likes the food and whether there will be any leftovers. These findings will help to manage parent’s expectations for serving disliked foods, such as vegetables, at mealtimes.
2. Whether children’s brain activity can predict food preferences of young children. If this can reliably predict liking for foods (the taste pleasure that the food provides) or wanting for foods (the desire to eat a particular food), it may help with understanding why children say one day that they like a food, but the next they say they don’t like the food and won’t eat it!

Insights from this work have the potential to inform strategies that reduce health risks linked to poor diet, supporting both children and parent’s dietary choices and food-related behaviours.