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Title: Pediatric eating behaviors as the intersection of biology and parenting: Lessons from the birds and the bees

Author
item WOOD, ALEXIS - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item MOMIN, SHABNAM - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item SENN, MACKENZIE - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item HUGHES, SHERYL - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)

Submitted to: Current Nutrition Reports
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/23/2018
Publication Date: 2/19/2018
Citation: Wood, A.C., Momin, S., Senn, M., Hughes, S.O. 2018. Pediatric eating behaviors as the intersection of biology and parenting: Lessons from the birds and the bees. Current Nutrition Reports. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-018-0223-4.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Current feeding advice to prevent pediatric obesity focuses on caregiver feeding behaviors. This review integrates newer data showing that child appetitive traits also have a genetic component. Caregiver feeding behaviors robustly correlate with child eating behaviors; however, there is also a strong heritable component. The satiety cascade delineates the biological drive underlying hunger, satiation, and satiety. Innate individual differences exist for the components of the satiety cascade, which may explain the heritability of child eating behaviors. However, given the correlation of caregiver feeding behaviors with child eating behaviors, any etiological model should include both genetic/biological components and environmental. Integrating the biological etiology of child eating behaviors into the current environmental model has implications for tailoring feeding advice which needs to move from a "one size fits all" approach to one that is tailored to individual differences in children's biological drives to appetite.