The role of food experiences during early childhood in food pleasure learning
Introduction
Eating is essential for survival, and human infants are born well equipped to ensure proper food ingestion. However, learning to eat has to occur quickly, in particular because the mode of feeding evolves dramatically during the first years of life, from “tube” feeding through the cord in utero to eating family foods by the end of the first year, through milk and complementary feeding. Moreover, very few food likes are inborn, except the enjoyment of the sweet taste: food preferences are learned, essentially during the first years of life (Schwartz, Scholtens, Lalanne, Weenen, & Nicklaus, 2011).
This paper evaluates the role of food experiences, especially during the early childhood, from birth until the age of two years, which corresponds to the onset of food neophobia, in the development of food pleasure in human infants or children. It firstly considers the interest of studying pleasure of eating in early childhood. Secondly, it defines pleasure of eating in young children, and exposes how to measure it. Thirdly, it describes the characteristics of the food experience that may influence the learning of food pleasure, highlighting in particular the role of food properties, and of the social context. A fourth part describes the crucial periods in food pleasure learning. A fifth section describes some of the factors that have been identified to explain inter-individual difference between children in food pleasure learning.
Section snippets
Why studying pleasure of eating during early childhood?
Early childhood is a sensitive period for development, and in particular of healthy eating habits (Schwartz, Scholtens, et al., 2011). Infants are born immature, from a physiological and psychological point of view; and several organs and functions related to eating will dramatically develop during the first years. Brain size triples in the first 2 years (Dekaban, 1978). The gastrointestinal tract is not functional and needs to achieve maturation to tolerate the introduction of nutrients (Neu,
Defining food pleasure in young children
Defining pleasure of eating is not necessarily obvious. In infants, hunger is associated with unpleasant sensations often expressed by crying. Contrarily, eating is associated with a pleasant sensation of fullness and with a calming effect. In its most literal meaning, pleasure may be defined as “a sensation of fulfilment experienced after the satisfaction of a need, a desire” (Larousse, 2014). This definition does not involve that pleasure is a conscious feeling, contrarily to other proposed
Characteristics of food experience influencing the learning of food pleasure
Simply knowing that food pleasure or motivation to eat can be boiled down to the release of opiods or dopamine in some brain areas (Berridge and Kringelbach, 2008, Kenny, 2011) does not help to understand from which types of stimuli pleasure of eating comes from, and how and when it is formed. Is pleasure drawn from sensory properties (appearance, taste, flavour, texture …) of the foods, or in other words to “good taste”? Alternatively, is pleasure associated with the ingestion of calories or
Pre and early post-natal periods
Food and flavour preference may be influenced by flavour exposure during the prenatal period (Hepper et al., 2013, Mennella et al., 2001, Schaal et al., 2000), in relation with the transfer of food flavours in biological fluids such as the amniotic fluid or the maternal milk. Recent papers detailed how prenatal exposure to food flavours may impact food likes later (Cooke and Fildes, 2011, Mennella, 2014).
Early life events are likely to impact not only metabolism functioning (Bateson et al., 2004
Inter-individual differences between children concerning food pleasure learning
The learning effects previously described are those observed for a majority of children, on the basis of mean observations. However, there may be important differences in reactions towards new foods in infants and children. These differences may be related to a general “temperament” in relation to feeding. For instance, infants (or children) who are less enthusiastic eaters, as revealed by the food fussiness and satiety responsiveness dimensions of the Baby Eating Behaviour or the Child Eating
Conclusion
Pleasure of eating in infants and young children is more difficult to measure than food dislike. It may be accessed via facial expressions, global behaviours, food intake, or judgement by another person. Pleasure of eating comes from many aspects of the eating situation: «good taste» or in other words food sensory properties, «plenty of calories» or in other words food post-ingestive and post-absorptive properties, as well as «having a good time» or contextual cues, including emotional context
Acknowledgement
This paper was prepared after the invitation of the author to the first symposium of the ANCA chair, held in Paris on December, 17th 2013. The author wishes to acknowledge the financial support of the Regional Council of Burgundy France (PARI Agral 1), and the European Funding for Regional Economical Development (FEDER) (38314 AGRAL 1-2012).
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