We are conducting studies to determine:

• whether food palatability interacts with hunger level to affect infants' hedonic responses and the development of food acceptance patterns.
• the learning mechanisms involved in the acquisition of conditioned flavor preferences in children between 5-12 years of age. What types of reinforcers are most effective in conditioning preferences for novel flavors?

Additional questions of interests:

• What mechanisms are involved in the acquisition of conditioned preferences for foods in infants?
• How does a caregiver’s response to a food affect infant’s acceptance and liking of that food?

The goal of our studies is to understand the development of food preferences in infants and children. Because poor eating habits and obesity during childhood are key predictors of adolescent and adulthood obesity, our studies provide important insights that help health care practitioners develop healthy eating strategies for children.

So what are children eating?

The recent Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study (FITS), which investigated the food choices and diets of more than 3,000 infants and toddlers between the ages of 4 to 24 months, showed that although most children were meeting their vitamin and mineral requirements, many were consuming foods that were high in fat, such as french fries, and sweet-tasting snacks or beverages. One in four children did not consume any vegetables on a given day.

These unhealthy dietary preferences are partially a reflection of children’s basic biology. It has been hypothesized that preferences for sweet tastes and high fat foods have evolved to attract children to sources of high energy during periods of maximal growth, whereas bitter rejection evolved to protect against poisoning since many toxic substances, by nature, are bitter and distasteful.

Promoting healthy eating patterns

Children’s first exposure to flavors occurs before birth in the intrauterine environment. Flavors of foods within mothers’ diets, such as garlic, alter the odor of amniotic fluid, which is swallowed and inhaled by the fetus. After birth, exposure to these flavors continues because the flavor of breast milk also reflects the mothers’ dietary choices.

As children grow and mature, the effects of these early experiences interact with a host of other factors, many of which are determined by children’s parents. Child-feeding strategies, food availability and social modeling of eating habits are just a few of the variables that interact and contribute to the development of life-long flavor preferences and eating patterns in general.

Lab News

W&M's own Kendall Bullock (Art & Psychology, 2009) painted an underwater mural for the lab!