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Volume 5, Issue 5(Suppl) J Child Adolesc Behav, an open access journal
ISSN: 2375-4494 Child Psychology 2017
September 28-29, 2017
Page 21
Notes:
conferenceseries.com
September 28-29, 2017 Berlin, Germany
23rd International Conference on
Adolescent Medicine &
Child Psychology
Ada H Zohar, J Child Adolesc Behav 2017, 5:5(Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2375-4494-C1-001
Picky eating in young children and its relationship to child and maternal characteristics
Background: Picky eating is very common in children and usually transient. However in a minority of children it marks the
begining of a lifetime of eating difficulties and disordered eating. The goals of the current study were to characterise children
whose picky eating was persistent and potentially troubling.
Methods: At baseline over 1000 children mean age 3.4 were ascertained and followed over three years. The chidren's eating
habits, the mothers feeding practices, the mothers perfectionism and trait anxiety, the childrens temperament, fearfeulness,
ritual behavior, executive function and behavioral problems were all assessed via maternal report.
Results: At baseline, 18.6% of the children were picky eaters, with an over-representation of eldest children. At follow-up a
subgroup of these children, about a quarter of those identified at baseline as picky eaters were still picky. The more persistent
picky eaters had a shyer and more negatively emotional temperament, more ritualistic behavior and childhood fears, and they
had more anxious mothers who were also more perfectionistic, more authoritarian, and more invested in controlling and
monitoring their children's eating.
Conclusions: It seems as if picky eating persists more in children with a more anxious and shy temperament, more anxious and
perfectionistic mothers, who are authortarian in imposing their authority. Interventions should target the maternal concern,
and rigidity and help mothers take a more relaxed and playful attitude to feeding and eating.
Biography
Ada H Zohar completed her PhD at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Post-Doctorate at Yale University School of Medicine. She is a faculty member at Ruppin Aca-
demic Center, where she headed the Clinical Psychology program and served as Dean of the School of Social and Community Sciences from 2009-2016. She is recently
a Visiting Scientist at Washington University School of Medicine. She has published more than 70 papers in refereed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board
Member of PeerJ, as well as serving as an incidental Reviewer for many peer-reviewed journals and funding agencies.
Ada H Zohar
Ruppin Academic Center, Israel