How Parents Affected Our Eating Habits

As kids we often refuse to eat certain foods. Is it because we did not enjoy eating food? Were we stubborn? Bored? This problem varies among different children. Some are even diagnosed by doctors as having a feeding disorder. This causes them not to be able to gain weight, lose weight, or gain nutritional needs. Some of these children just turn down solid foods and have to get all of their nutritional needs met through various liquids. Others are just picky on what they eat. For example, they only consume soft foods, which could cause them not to get the right vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy diet.

It is believed that this food refusal is due to the actions of the parent or caregiver. The author believes that when the parent or caregiver stops asking their child to eat when they start disruptive behavior they continue this bad behavior. The way the caregiver gives attention are used to determine why a child has inappropriate mealtime behavior and why parents respond to this inappropriate mealtime behavior as they day.

One way to characterize how these interactions encourage inappropriate mealtime behavior is through a descriptive examination of the interactions between the parent and child during mealtimes. This is when meal schedules are changed and then the researcher studies the changes in their behavior.

Another type of study is called descriptive observation. This is when observers just watch parents feeding their children. In this study six children and their parent participated. Parents would first give the children attention during their meals and then would give them escape, by not asking them to eat anymore. In 2 out of the 6 cases, giving the children attention resulted in inappropriate behavior.

An important part of this study was the different types of attention and escape. For example a form of attention could be asking the child “why did you stop eating” or “are you okay you are not eating any of your food.” Examples of escape include taking away their spoon. These different forms of attention and escape change the intensity of the child’s good or behavior.
Fisher found that escape was a reinforcer for bad mealtime behavior most frequently (9 out of 15 cases in his experiment). But positive reinforcement in the form of attention was a reinforcer in almost as many cases (8 out of 15 cases in his experiment). This further proves the statement that different forms of attention change the effect of the parents’ actions on the child.

Do you remember the forms of attention that your parents gave you when you were at the kitchen table as a child? Did they change your eating habits? According to the Behavior Modifications article, they most certainly did.

Fun Links
Behavior Modifications by Julia N. Woods, John C. Borrero, Rinita B. Laud and Carrie S. W. Borrero http://bmo.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/34/1/35

Anna Perez