Pediatric Eating Behaviors as the Intersection of Biology and Parenting: Lessons from the Birds and the Bees

Abstract

Purpose of Review

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.

Recent Findings

Caregiver feeding behaviors robustly correlate with child eating behaviors; however, there is also a strong heritable component.

Summary

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.

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