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. 2020 Jun;145(6):e20192018.
doi: 10.1542/peds.2019-2018.

Trajectories of Picky Eating in Low-Income US Children

Carmen Fernandez  1 , Harlan McCaffery  2 , Alison L Miller  2   3 , Niko Kaciroti  2 , Julie C Lumeng  2   3   4 , Megan H Pesch  5
Affiliations

Trajectories of Picky Eating in Low-Income US Children

Carmen Fernandez et al. Pediatrics. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

Background and objectives: Picky eating is common, yet little is known about trajectories of picky eating in childhood. Our objectives were to examine trajectories of child picky eating in low-income US children from ages 4 to 9 years and associations of those trajectories with participant characteristics, including child BMI z score (BMIz) and maternal feeding-behavior trajectories.

Methods: Mother-child dyads (N = 317) provided anthropometry and reported on picky eating and maternal feeding behaviors via questionnaires at child ages 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9 years. At baseline, mothers reported on demographics and child emotional regulation. Trajectories of picky eating and maternal feeding behaviors were identified by using latent class analysis. Bivariate analyses examined associations of picky-eating trajectory membership with baseline characteristics and maternal feeding-behavior trajectory memberships. A linear mixed model was used to examine the association of BMIz with picky-eating trajectories.

Results: Three trajectories of picky eating emerged: persistently low (n = 92; 29%), persistently medium (n = 181; 57%), and persistently high (n = 44; 14%). Membership in the high picky-eating trajectory was associated with higher child emotional lability and lower child emotional regulation. Picky eating was associated with restriction (P = .01) and demandingness (P < .001) trajectory memberships, such that low picky eating was associated with low restriction and high picky eating was associated with high demandingness. Medium and high picky-eating trajectories were associated with lower BMIz.

Conclusions: Picky eating appears to be traitlike in childhood and may be protective against higher BMIz.

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Conflict of interest statement

POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Trajectories of child picky eating over time as measured by the CEBQ Food Fussiness subscale. Three persistent trajectories emerged that consistently differed from each other by 1 to 2 points across ages 3 to 11 years.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Trajectories of maternal feeding behaviors as measured by the CFQ and CFSQ. CFQ restriction and pressure-to-eat subscales are scaled from 1 to 5, and the CFSQ demandingness subscale is scaled from 1 to 5. A, Trajectories of maternal restriction over time. B, Trajectories of maternal pressure to eat over time. C, Trajectories of maternal demandingness over time.
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Comment in

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