Food Reinforcement During Infancy

Overview

Journal Prev Med

Specialty Public Health

Date 2016 Jul 5

PMID 27373207

Citations 8

Authors

Kai Ling Kong

Leonard H Epstein

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The motivation to eat, as operationalized by measuring how hard someone will work for food, is cross-sectionally and prospectively related to obesity. Persons high in food reinforcement consume more calories, and energy intake mediates the relationship between food reinforcement and obesity. Research has shown avid sucking for milk in early infancy predicts later adiposity, and the relationship between food reinforcement and excess body weight has been observed in infants as young as 9months of age. New methodological developments in studying food reinforcement in infants and young children provide the first opportunity to study the origin of food reinforcement. This review seeks to provide background on the measurement of food reinforcement, and to present, for the first time, prenatal and postnatal predictors of infant food reinforcement. Lastly, potential mechanisms for an increasing trajectory of food reinforcement throughout development are proposed.

Citing Articles

Reinforcing value of food, enriched home environment, and changes in percent overweight in children.

Carr K, Black W, Guth C, Shapiro L, Leone L, Temple J Obesity (Silver Spring). 2023; 31(4):1075-1084.

PMID: 36855013 PMC: 11822945. DOI: 10.1002/oby.23685.

Reducing relative food reinforcement of infants using a music enrichment program: a randomized, controlled trial.

Kong K, Eiden R, Morris K, Paluch R, Carr K, Epstein L Am J Clin Nutr. 2022; 116(6):1642-1653.

PMID: 36250608 PMC: 9761746. DOI: 10.1093/ajcn/nqac209.

The Effect of Financial Scarcity on Reinforcer Pathology: A Dyadic Developmental Examination.

Crandall A, Epstein L, Fillo J, Carfley K, Fumerelle E, Temple J Children (Basel). 2022; 9(9).

PMID: 36138648 PMC: 9498192. DOI: 10.3390/children9091338.

Food reinforcement and habituation to food are processes related to initiation and cessation of eating.

Epstein L, Carr K Physiol Behav. 2021; 239:113512.

PMID: 34217735 PMC: 9632495. DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2021.113512.

The enriched home environment and dietary intake are related to percent overBMI in children.

Epstein L, Carr K, Guth C, Shapiro L, Leone L, Temple J Prev Med Rep. 2021; 23:101440.

PMID: 34178591 PMC: 8209748. DOI: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101440.

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