Picky Eating Behavior In Children

Children’s picky eating behavior is defined as a child’s eating behavior that refuses a series of familiar and unfamiliar foods(Smith,Roux,Naidoo,& Venter,2005).Picky eating behavior is an age-related,temporary behavior.Children’s picky eating behavior will appear in infants and toddlers.Some studies have found that it is in a stable epidemic period between 2.5-4.5 years old(Dubois,Farmer,Girard,Peterson,& Tatone-Tokuda,2007),but the development path of picky eating behavior is also lacking in exploration.The cognitive development of school-age children is at a critical stage,and cognitive development is also affecting the changes in eating behavior,so this study will explore the picky eating behavior of school-age children.Researchers have also carried out a large number of studies on children’s picky eating behavior,and researchers have explored the relationship between children’s picky eating behavior,food preferences and actual eating patterns.In terms of variety in diets,studies reached a consistent conclusion that picky eaters will eat fewer types of food than normal children(Cardona Cano et al.,2015;Northstone & Emmett,2013).Regarding food preferences,a large number of studies have shown that picky eaters do not like to eat vegetables and fruits,and prefer sweets or other high-reward foods(Carruth,Ziegler,Gordon,& Barr,2004;Haszard,Skidmore,Williams,& Taylor,2014;Horodynski,Stommel,Brophy-Herb,Xie,& Weatherspoon,2010;Taylor,Wernimont,Northstone,&Emmett,2015).Researchers will also pay attention to the discussion of factors influencing children’s picky eating behavior(Lafraire,Rioux,Giboreau,& Picard,2016);studies have shown that perceptual cues affect the visual evaluation of food(Wadhera & Capaldi Phillips,2014).These cues will become the key mechanism of food rejection and other eating behaviors;in addition,sensory sensitivity has also become an important influencing factor.The high level of picky eating behavior in children may be related to high sensory sensitivity(Farrow & Coulthard,2012;Smith,Rogers,Blissett,& Ludlow,2020).There are also some negative emotions that can affect children’s picky eating behavior,such as anxiety,disgust and other emotions(Farrow & Coulthard,2012).These factors are all affected by "cognitive factors",and some studies believe that social/environmental factors also play a crucial role in picky eating behavior.Previous studies focused on the impact of parental feeding,an environmental factor,on picky eating behavior.One of the parental feeding is called "instrumental feeding",for example,parents use food as a reward to encourage their children to make positive behaviors.Parental feeding with food as a reward also affects children’s picky eating behavior(Kr(?)ller & Warschburger,2008;Vereecken,Keukelier,& Maes,2004).Although previous studies have explored the influence of cognitive factors and environmental factors on children’s picky eating behavior,and discussed the eating patterns of picky eaters in real life,previous studies also have the following shortcomings:Firstly,few studies have explored children’s picky eating behavior at the brain level;secondly,previous studies have found that parental feeding with food as a reward was related to children’s picky eating behavior,but the mechanism between the two variables has not been further explored.Based on the foundation and deficiencies of previous studies,this study aims to explore the relationship between resting-state f MRI indicators and children’s picky eating behavior,and further explore whether resting state indicators can predict children’s picky eating behavior one year later,And explore the relationship between the parental feeding-"use food as a reward" and children’s picky eating behavior and resting state indicators,so as to further reveal the influence mechanism of children’s picky eating behavior.In the first study,87 children aged 9-12 years old were used as subjects.The restingstate f MRI technique was used to measure the brain activity of the children in the resting state,and the children’s parents completed the children’s eating behavior questionnaire to obtain the children’s picky eating levels.The study selected regional homogeneity(Re Ho),degree centrality and functional connectivity as variables that reflect resting brain activity,through correlation analysis and machine learning methods to explore the three indicators relationship with children’s picky eating behavior.The results found that children’s picky eating behavior was positively correlated with the Re Ho and degree centrality at the caudate nucleus,and negatively correlated with the Re Ho at the precuneus;children’s picky eating behavior was correlated with functional connections from the caudate nucleus to putamen,bilateral caudate nucleus,caudate nucleus to precuneus,caudate nucleus to cuneus,caudate nucleus to superior frontal gyrus,caudate nucleus to insula,and insula to middle frontal gyrus.In predictive analysis based on machine learning,these significantly related brain indicators can also significantly predict children’s picky eating.Based on Study 1,the second study tracked children’s picky eating behavior one year later,and used the data of study 1 as the baseline;this study used machine learning method,and used the resting state indicators at the baseline to predict the picky eating behavior one year later,and finally found that the Re Ho at the precuneus and the functional connection between the precuneus and the caudate nucleus can significantly predict the picky eating behavior of children one year later.In Study 3,on the basis of the previous two studies,the parental feeding— use food as a reward as the independent variable,resting brain activity as the mediating variable,and children’s picky eating behavior as the dependent variable.A mediating model was established.The results found that the parental feeding – use food as a reward can mediate children’s picky eating behavior through the functional connection of caudate nucleus and putamen.In summary,this study found that children’s picky eating behavior was positively correlated with the Re Ho and degree centrality at the caudate nucleus,and negatively correlated with the Re Ho at the precuneus;children’s picky eating behavior was correlated with functional connections from the caudate nucleus to putamen,bilateral caudate nucleus,caudate nucleus to precuneus,caudate nucleus to cuneus,caudate nucleus to superior frontal gyrus,caudate nucleus to insula,and insula to middle frontal gyrus.The Re Ho at the precuneus and the functional connections from the precuneus to the caudate nucleus can also significantly predict children’s picky eating behavior one year later;parental feeding – use food as a reward can affect children’s picky eating behavior by affecting the strength of the caudate-putamen functional connection.This study is the first to explore the relationship between the Re Ho and degree centrality in the resting state and children’s picky eating and to conduct longitudinal predictions.It is also the first to explore the relationship between parental feeding-use food as a reward and children’s picky eating behavior and resting state.In theory,this study provides new evidence for exploring the formation mechanism of children’s picky eating behavior,and at the practical level,it can provide certain scientific support for improving the feeding strategies of children’s picky eating behavior.