Background: Early “fussy” eating behaviours are associated with reduced dietary variety, particularly for nutrient-dense foods. Previous research has assumed that parental feeding practices shape a child’s fussy eating; however, a child-responsive model suggests that feeding practices may develop in response to a child’s fussiness. We used a novel twin study design to test whether mothers vary their feeding practices for twin children who differ in their ‘food fussiness’, in support of a child-responsive model.
Methods: Participants were mothers and their 16 month old twin children (n=2026) from Gemini, a British twin birth cohort of children born in 2007. Standardized psychometric measures of maternal ‘pressure to eat’, ‘restriction’ and ‘instrumental feeding’, as well as child ‘food fussiness’, were completed by mothers. Within-family analyses examined if twin-pair differences in ‘food fussiness’ were associated with differences in feeding practices using linear regression models. In a subset of twins (n=247 pairs) who were the most discordant (highest quartile) on ‘food fussiness’ (difference score ≥.50), Paired Samples T-test were used to explore the magnitude of differences in feeding practices between twins. Between-family analyses used Complex Samples General Linear Models to examine associations between feeding practices and ‘food fussiness’.
Results: Within-pair differences in ‘food fussiness’ were associated with differential ‘pressure to eat’ and ‘instrumental feeding’ (ps<.001), but not with ‘restriction’. In the subset of twins most discordant on ‘food fussiness’, mothers used more pressure (p<.001) and food rewards (p<.05) with the fussier twin. Between-family analyses indicated that ‘pressure to eat’ and ‘instrumental feeding’ were positively associated with ‘food fussiness’, while ‘restriction’ was negatively associated with ‘food fussiness’ (ps<.001).
Conclusions: Mothers appear to adjust their feeding practices according to their perceptions of their toddler’s emerging fussy eating behavior. Specifically, the fussier toddler is pressured and more likely to be offered food rewards than their less fussy co-twin.