Increasing Intake of an Unfamiliar Vegetable in Preschool Children Through Learning Using Storybooks and Sensory Play: A Cluster Randomized Trial

Background: Most children eat fewer vegetables than recommended. Storybooks and sensory play may increase vegetable intake. Objective: This study tested the effects on intake of learning about an unfamiliar vegetable (celeriac) through storybooks and sensory play. It was predicted that an illustrated, congruent storybook would increase intake of celeriac compared to an incongruent storybook (carrot); and that adding congruent sensory play with celeriac to the storybook would produce a synergistic effect on intake of celeriac. Design: Children from 12 UK preschools were randomly assigned by clusters to four intervention conditions using a 2×2 factorial design. The factors were vegetable congruency (sensory play and/or storybook were congruent, or incongruent [carrot] with celeriac) and intervention type (storybook only or storybook combined with sensory play). Participants/setting: Three hundred and thirty-seven children aged 2 to 5 years were recruited to take part in November 2017. Intervention: Over a 2-week period, children in all four conditions were read a vegetable storybook featuring celeriac or carrot. In addition, two conditions received sensory play with either carrot or celeriac added to the storybook method. Main outcome measures: Intake of the unfamiliar vegetable (celeriac) was measured at baseline and after the 2-week intervention. Statistical analysis performed: Complex samples logistic regression and general linear modeling were performed to examine group differences at post-intervention. Results: Children receiving the congruent (celeriac) storybook had higher odds of eating celeriac compared to children who received the incongruent (carrot) storybook. Receiving congruent sensory play increased the odds of eating celeriac, whereas receiving incongruent sensory play did not. From the 267 children who completed both baseline and post-intervention assessments, 85 ate no celeriac at baseline and were classed as non-eaters. Sensory play (congruent or incongruent) increased the odds of eating some celeriac in non-eaters compared to storybook only conditions. Conclusions: Congruency between storybook and vegetable increased intake; sensory play with celeriac increased the likelihood of eating celeriac. Storybooks and sensory play are simple interventions to increase willingness to try an unfamiliar vegetable

Influence of oral processing on appetite and food intake - A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Food delivers energy, nutrients and a pleasurable experience. Slow eating and prolonged oro-sensory exposure to food during consumption can enhance the processes that promote satiation. This systematic review and meta-analysis investigated the effects of oral processing on subjective measures of appetite (hunger, desire to eat) and objectively measured food intake. The aim was to investigate the influence of oral processing characteristics, specifically "chewing" and "lubrication", on "appetite" and "food intake". A literature search of six databases (Cochrane library, PubMed, Medline, Food Science and Technology Abstracts, Web of Science, Scopus), yielded 12161 articles which were reduced to a set of 40 articles using pre-specified inclusion and exclusion criteria. A further two articles were excluded from the meta-analysis due to missing relevant data. From the remaining 38 papers, detailing 40 unique studies with 70 subgroups, raw data were extracted for meta-analysis (food intake n = 65, hunger n = 22 and desire to eat ratings n = 15) and analyzed using random effects modelling. Oral processing parameters, such as number of chews, eating rate and texture manipulation, appeared to influence food intake markedly but appetite ratings to a lesser extent. Meta-analysis confirmed a significant effect of the direct and indirect aspects of oral processing that were related to chewing on both self-reported hunger (-0.20 effect size, 95% confidence interval CI: -0.30, -0.11), and food intake (-0.28 effect size, 95% CI: -0.36, -0.19). Although lubrication is an important aspect of oral processing, few studies on its effects on appetite have been conducted. Future experiments using standardized approaches should provide a clearer understanding of the role of oral processing, including both chewing and lubrication, in promoting satiety

Developing a novel tool to assess liking and wanting in infants at the time of complementary feeding - The Feeding Infants: Behaviour and Facial Expression Coding System (FIBFECS)

Introduction: Consumption of foods is determined in part by how much a food is liked. However, assessing liking in infants is difficult. Research with infants has often relied on indirect measures such as intake or subjective ratings from mothers. Therefore the aim of the present research was to devise a tool adapted from existing techniques which can directly and systematically measure liking in infants during the weaning period. Method: A tool was developed by extracting items from previous studies. In all, 13 items were generated, which included 6 behaviours reflecting avoidance and approach: turning away, arching back, pushing spoon away, crying/fussy, leaning forward and rate of acceptance; also 7 facial expressions thought to reflect affective response; brow lowered, inner brow raised, squinting, nose wrinkling, upper lip raised, lip corners down and gaping. An e-training manual was developed with a certification test to train coders. The coding tool is based on coding the first 9 spoonfuls for each infant. 63 videos were coded by 4 raters, each video was coded by at least 2 different coders. For each spoonful the absence or presence of each item was recorded; for rate of acceptance, a four point scale was used. Results: In the certification test most cues were high in agreement for all coders. Factor analysis indicated two dimensions, one which largely captured gross behaviours and the second featuring a cluster of facial expressions. Internal consistencies of the overall scale and the behaviour and facial expression subscales were acceptable as indicated by Cronbach's alpha >0.7. Intra-class correlation indicated moderate to high inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability for most of the cues. Spearman correlations indicated significant associations of the total number of negative behaviours with rate of acceptance and overall facial expressions. Rejection behaviours corresponded with a low rate of food acceptance and a high rate of negative facial expressions. Two parameters occurred less frequently and did not appear to provide any further discriminatory ability, namely leaning forward and crying/fussiness, these can be removed from the scale for future use. Conclusions: The Feeding Infants: Behaviour and Facial Expression Coding System (FIBFECS) is structurally valid and reliable for use by trained coders and those who are researching infant eating behaviour. The two factor structure of the tool suggests that the facial expression subscale reflects liking and the behaviour subscale wanting. The tool could also be adapted for mothers and professionals to detect liking and wanting through facial expression and behavioural cues respectively

Learning to Eat Vegetables in Early Life: The Role of Timing, Age and Individual Eating Traits

Vegetable intake is generally low among children, who appear to be especially fussy during the pre-school years. Repeated exposure is known to enhance intake of a novel vegetable in early life but individual differences in response to familiarisation have emerged from recent studies. In order to understand the factors which predict different responses to repeated exposure, data from the same experiment conducted in three groups of children from three countries (n = 332) aged 4–38 m (18.9±9.9 m) were combined and modelled. During the intervention period each child was given between 5 and 10 exposures to a novel vegetable (artichoke puree) in one of three versions (basic, sweet or added energy). Intake of basic artichoke puree was measured both before and after the exposure period. Overall, younger children consumed more artichoke than older children. Four distinct patterns of eating behaviour during the exposure period were defined. Most children were “learners” (40%) who increased intake over time. 21% consumed more than 75% of what was offered each time and were labelled “plate-clearers”. 16% were considered “non-eaters” eating less than 10 g by the 5th exposure and the remainder were classified as “others” (23%) since their pattern was highly variable. Age was a significant predictor of eating pattern, with older pre-school children more likely to be non-eaters. Plate-clearers had higher enjoyment of food and lower satiety responsiveness than non-eaters who scored highest on food fussiness. Children in the added energy condition showed the smallest change in intake over time, compared to those in the basic or sweetened artichoke condition. Clearly whilst repeated exposure familiarises children with a novel food, alternative strategies that focus on encouraging initial tastes of the target food might be needed for the fussier and older pre-school children

Application and validation of the Feeding Infants: Behaviour and Facial Expression Coding System (FIBFECS) to assess liking and wanting in infants at the time of complementary feeding

Introduction: The aim of this study was to validate a novel tool developed to measure liking and wanting in infants during the weaning period. The Feeding Infants: Behaviour and Facial Expression Coding System (FIBFECS; Hetherington et al., in press) is an evidence based video coding tool, consisting of 13 items. There are 6 measures of avoidance/approach behaviours (turns head away, arches back, pushes spoon away, crying/fussy, leaning forward and rate of acceptance) to assess wanting and 7 facial expressions (brow lowered, inner brow raised, squinting, nose wrinkling, lip corners down, upper lip raised and gaping) to assess liking. Lower scores on the total scale indicated greater wanting and/or liking. The tool was applied to a recent randomized control trial (Hetherington et al., 2015). Method: 36 mother-infant dyads took part in the study and were randomised to the intervention or the control group. Infants were filmed on two occasions whilst eating a generally liked vegetable (carrots) and less preferred vegetable (green bean). 72 video extracts were coded by 4 trained researchers with adequate certification scores, each video was coded by at least two coders. Items and scales were tested for discrimination ((1) intervention vs control; (2) liked vs disliked vegetable) and construct validity (correlation with intake and liking assessed by mother and researcher). Results: Very good discrimination (p < 0.001) was obtained for carrots vs green bean for the total score and total negative facial expressions and rejection behaviours (p=0.003). Discrimination for the intervention vs control groups was only obtained for the total rejections and the rate of acceptance (p < 05). The FIBFECS subscales had good construct validity as these were significantly correlated with intake and liking ratings (p < 0.01). Items such as crying/fussy and leaning forward were removed from the scale as well as inner brow raised, squinting and lip corners down, as these do not correlate with other variables. Their removal did not affect the integrity of the scale. The rate of acceptance parameter was found to have potential as a short method to measure wanting in infants. Conclusion: The present study has demonstrated that the FIBFECS can be used to identify liking and wanting independent of subjective ratings from mothers and researchers, therefore, this tool can be used widely in the study of infant responses to novel foods at the time of weaning. There is potential to develop the tool for infants beyond the period of complementary feeding and to assist in identifying fussy eating in the early stages of development

A step-by-step introduction to vegetables at the beginning of complementary feeding. The effects of early and repeated exposure

Breastfeeding (BF) is associated with willingness to accept vegetables. This may be due to the variety of flavours delivered via breast milk. Some mothers add vegetables to milk during complementary feeding (CF) to enhance acceptance. The present study tested a step-by-step exposure to vegetables in milk then rice during CF, on intake and liking of vegetables. Just before CF, enrolled mothers were randomised to an intervention (IG, n = 18; 6 BF) or control group (CG, n = 18; 6 BF). IG infants received 12 daily exposures to vegetable puree added to milk (days 1-12), then 12 × 2 daily exposures to vegetable puree added to rice at home (days 13-24). Plain milk and rice were given to CG. Then both received 11 daily exposures to vegetable puree. Intake was weighed and liking rated on days 25-26 and 33-35 after the start of CF in the laboratory, supplemented by the same data recorded at home. Vegetables were rotated daily (carrots, green beans, spinach, broccoli). Intake, liking and pace of eating were greater for IG than CG infants. Intake and liking of carrots were greater than green beans. However, at 6m then 18m follow up, vegetable (carrot > green beans) but not group differences were observed. Mothers reported appreciation of the structure and guidance of this systematic approach. Early exposure to vegetables in a step-by-step method could be included in CF guidelines and longer term benefits assessed by extending the exposure period

Downsizing by design – Investigating acceptance, choice and willingness to pay for portion control design concepts

Nudge theory predicts that consumers will select smaller portions of high energy density (HED) foods and drinks when packaging presents physical or other limits. To test the feasibility and acceptability of packaging concepts designed to limit portion sizes for children, two mixed methods studies were conducted. Packaging with functional serving size reminders, visual narrative, and metaphor were developed using 3-D prototypes. In each study, packaging prototypes were assessed, either in person (Study 1, n = 50) or via an online survey (Study 2, n = 297). In Study 1, parents visiting a Science museum poured servings for their children of HED foods/drinks and provided feedback on prototypes designed to limit portions of these items. Responses were recorded via questionnaire and interview. In Study 1, parents significantly adjusted amount poured for children based on age and in alignment with recommended portion sizes; they reported that the packaging prototypes would facilitate portion control through education, convenience and autonomy but raised concerns about costs and recyclable/reusable materials. In Study 2 parents responded to the same prototypes online providing measures of willingness to pay (WTP), forced choice and open-ended feedback for each concept. Parents were WTP more for downsizing packaging concepts, choosing them over their regular brand in most cases and confirming a generally positive view of the designs. However, WTP magnitude depended on consumer segmentation (price concerns, health motives). Innovative design concepts can be used to nudge towards smaller portions, but this depends on parental motivation

Taste Exposure Increases Intake and Nutrition Education Increases Willingness to Try an Unfamiliar Vegetable in Preschool Children: A Cluster Randomized Trial

Background: Intake of vegetables in children remains low. Objective: To compare taste exposure (TE), nutrition education (NE) and TE+NE together on intake of an unfamiliar vegetable (mooli/daikon radish) in preschool-aged children. Design: Children attending 11 preschools in England were randomly assigned by clusters to four intervention conditions using a 2×2 factorial design: TE, NE, TE+NE, and no intervention (control). Participants: Two hundred nineteen children aged 2 to 5 years participated from September 2016 to June 2017. Intervention: The intervention period was 10 weeks preceded and followed by measurements of raw mooli intake as a snack. Preschools were randomized to receive weekly TE at snack time (n=62 children); NE (n=68) using the PhunkyFoods program; TE+NE (n=55) received both weekly taste exposures at snack and lessons from the PhunkyFoods program; and the control condition (n=34), received NE after the final follow-up measurement. Main outcome measures: Individual measured intakes of mooli at Week 1 (baseline), Week 12 (postintervention), and Week 24 and Week 36 (follow-ups). Statistical analyses: Differences in intakes were analyzed by cluster. Logistic regressions were conducted to examine odds ratios for intake patterns. Results: Data from 140 children with complete mooli intake assessments were analyzed. TE increased intake from 4.7±1.4 g to 17.0±2.0 g and this was maintained at both follow-ups. Children assigned to the NE conditions were more likely to eat some of the mooli than children who were not in the NE conditions (odds ratio 6.43, 95% CI 1.5 to 27.8). Combining TE and NE produced no additional benefit to intake beyond TE alone. Conclusions: Taste exposures encouraged children to eat more of the unfamiliar vegetable, whereas nutrition education encouraged children who were noneaters to try the vegetable. Both approaches were effective and can be used to produce different outcomes