Abstract
The development of the controls of food intake during the early years of life is discussed, with particular emphasis on the possible role of early experience in the development of eating disorders and obesity. During the first years of life, the change from suckling to feeding occurs. The infant’s successful transition from reliance on a single food to consuming a varied diet is essential to adequate growth and health. Infants are probably the only depletion-driven human eaters. By the end of the preschool period, eating occurs as a result of a complex interaction of social, cultural, and environmental factors with physiological cues. Learning and early experience of food and eating play a central role in the development of food-acceptance patterns. During the early years, children are introduced to the diet of their culture and acquire food preferences and aversions, and they learn rules of cuisine, such as when to eat, and even how much to eat. A major theme of this review is that learning, and especially associative conditioning to the social contexts and the physiological consequences of eating, makes major contributions to the formation of food-acceptance patterns during early childhood. This view implicates early experience of eating in the development of individual differences in styles of intake control and could be heuristically useful in the investigation of the etiology of eating disorders and obesity.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Birch, L. L., Billman, J., & Richards, S. (1984). Time of day influences food acceptability. Appetite, 5, 109–112.
Birch, L. L., & Deysher, M. (1985). Conditioned and unconditioned caloric compensation: Evidence for self regulation of food intake by young children. Learning & Motivation, 16, 341–355.
Birch, L. L., & Deysher, M. (1986). Caloric compensation and sensory specific satiety: Evidence for self-regulation of food intake by young children. Appetite, 7, 323–331.
Birch, L. L., Johnson, S. L., Andresen, G., Peters, J. C., & Schulte, M. (1991). The variability of young children’s energy intake. New England Journal of Medicine, 324, 232–235.
Birch, L. L., & Marlin, D. W. (1982). I don’t like it; I never tried it: Effects of exposure on two-year-old children’s food preferences. Appetite, 3, 353–360.
Birch, L. L., Marlin, D., & Rotter, J. (1984). Eating as the “mean” activity in a contingency: Effects on young children’s food preference. Child Development, 55, 432–439.
Birch, L. L., McPhee, L., Shoba, B. C., Steinberg, L., & Krehbiel, R. (1987). “Clean up your plate”: Effects of child feeding practices on the conditioning of meal size. Learning & Motivation, 18, 301–317.
Birch, L. L., McPhee, L., Steinberg, L., & Sullivan, S. (1990). Conditioned flavor preferences in young children. Physiology & Behavior, 47, 501–505.
Birch, L. L., McPhee, L., & Sullivan, S. (1989). Children’s food intake following drinks sweetened with sucrose or aspartame: Time course effects. Physiology & Behavior, 45, 387–396.
Birch, L. L., McPhee, L., Sullivan, S., & Johnson, S. (1989). Conditioned meal initiation in young children. Appetite, 13, 105–113.
Birch, L. L., Zimmerman, S., & Hind, H. (1980). The influence of social affective context on preschool children’s food preferences. Child Development, 51, 856–861.
Davidson, F. R., Hayek, L.A., & Altschul, A. M. (1986). Towards accurate assessment of children’s food consumption. Ecology of Food & Nutrition, 18, 309–317.
Davis, C. (1928). Self selection of diet by newly weaned infants. American Journal of Diseases of Children, 36, 651–679.
Davis, C. (1939). Results of the self selection of diets by young children. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 41, 257–261.
Fomon, S. J. (1974). Infant nutrition (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.
National Research Council (U.S.) Committee on Diet and Health (1989). Diet and health: Implications for reducing chronic disease risk. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Sclafani, A. (1990). Nutritionally-based learned flavor preferences in rats. In E. D. Capaldi & T. L. Powley (Eds.), Taste, experience, and feeding (pp. 139-156). American Psychological Association.
Sullivan, S., & Birch, L. (1990). Pass the sugar, pass the salt: Experience dictates preference. Developmental Psychology, 26, 546–551.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (1985). Nutrition and your health: Dietary guidelines for Americans (Home and Garden Bulletin No. 232, ed. 2). Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office.
Weingarten, H. (1983). Conditioned cues elicit eating in sated rats: A role for learning in meal initiation. Science, 220, 431–433.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Birch, L.L. Obesity and eating disorders: A developmental perspective. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 29, 265–272 (1991). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335252
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335252