|
Research on Children's Eating Habits
Adaptiveness of food learning and food aversions in children by Elizabeth Cashdan, a paper on The Anthropology of Food David Waynforth found this article, and Schuyler Waynforth sent it to me with this note: It's about how children's reticence to eat certain kinds of things might be adaptive given the foods that would have been around in hunter gatherer's larders. In the conclusion section she says:You might need to print the article out to read it, but it's easy reading and not long. One thing the research mentions is the kind of eating kids do when they might want one food for many days running, and also the very common (and sensible, for beginners) preference for eating food that's not mixed with other foods.Parents are often advised—with good reason—to relax about their child's eating behavior and not worry so much. Yet this is often difficult for them to do. If it can be shown that these behaviors are sensible adaptations to learning about food, parents should be better able to accept their child's food habits with equanimity.Schuyler |