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What the Experts Say
Healthy Eating Habits Lauren Hunt, Teri Patrick, Patti Bokony University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
CONCERN Children’s physical and language skills increase rapidly after infancy. This developmental growth period allows them to take a larger role in feeding themselves and to express their food likes and dislikes. Parents often find their toddler’s or preschooler’s mealtime attitude, food preferences, and eating behavior challenging. Parents may feel anxious about what and how much their child eats. Most parents want to know more about promoting good nutrition as well as how and what to feed their child.1 Early childhood eating habits continue into adulthood; therefore, helping toddlers and preschoolers to develop healthy eating habits is important.1-4
RESEARCH Rapid Development
Feeding self-regulation involves learning when to eat and how much to eat.
Eating patterns change more rapidly from ages 12 months to 24 months than at any other time of life. This corresponds with rapid overall growth in early toddlerhood. The brain reaches 75% of its adult size by the end of the second year. Fine and gross motor skills develop rapidly so toddlers diligently practice picking up, dropping, pulling, pushing, and generally making fun things happen with their hands while practicing selffeeding.5 Rapidly developing language skills allow toddlers to become more vocal and expressive about their eating preferences. From 12 months to 24 months, children’s meal pattern changes from infant-style to a modified, adult diet.
Feeding Self-Regulation Children have significant changes in their growth rates from 1 year to 3 years of age. Young children’s appetites also change. The amount of food children eat depends on their growth rate and developmental stage. At the same time, children learn to control their own eating habits. Feeding (or eating) self-regulation involves learning when and how much to eat. Toddlerhood is a critical time for developing feeding self-regulation. Young children learn critical skills that last their lifetime including meal scheduling, meal size, and food selection.2,4
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Page 1 of 19 Copyright © 2009 Patti Bokony – bokonypattia@uams.edu