2024-02-21 11:00:00
parenting
Excessive appetite as a child increases the risk of developing this disease later in life.
Reporter Oh Sang-hoon
Entered 2024/02/21 20:00
Photo = Clip Art Korea Research has shown that if a child has excessive appetite at the age of 4 or 5, there is a high possibility of experiencing eating disorder symptoms at the age of 12 or 14. The research team suggested that children eat slowly during childhood as a strategy.
A research team at University College London (UCL) in the UK conducted a study to determine whether there was a relationship between reactions to food in infancy and the incidence of eating disorder symptoms in adolescence. We looked at cohort data including 3,670 adolescents in the UK and the Netherlands. The research team first evaluated the appetite characteristics of adolescents based on the results of a survey completed by their parents when they were 4 to 5 years old. ‘Appetite characteristics’ included how a person reacts to food and the degree of urge to eat.
They then conducted a survey directly to determine what percentage of adolescents were experiencing eating disorder symptoms when they reached the age of 12 to 14. As a result, approximately 50% of adolescents reported at least one eating disorder symptom, such as skipping meals to supplement food intake or avoid weight gain. Approximately 10% reported binge eating, which involves eating unusual amounts of food or losing control over eating.
When the research team integrated the results of the two surveys, it was found that adolescents who were highly reactive to food in childhood were 47% more likely to experience symptoms of binge eating than those who were not. Additionally, the likelihood of limiting food intake to avoid weight gain or showing compensatory behavior such as vomiting after eating was 16% higher.
There were also appetite characteristics that prevented eating disorder symptoms. Children who felt full quickly as infants were less likely to experience binge eating than children who did not feel full quickly. Additionally, children who were slow eaters were less likely to restrict food intake or engage in compensatory behaviors to avoid weight gain.
“Although we cannot prove an exact causal relationship, our findings suggest that food reactions in infancy may be one of the risk factors for eating disorders in adolescence,” said study author Dr. Ivonne Derks.
The research team proposed ‘responsive feeding’ as a strategy that can reduce the incidence of eating disorder symptoms in adolescents. Responsive feeding is a method that allows children to decide for themselves what and how much to eat at set meal times.
“Previous research has shown that pressuring children to eat food or using food as a reward increases their likelihood of developing certain eating disorders later in life,” said study co-author Dr Zeynep Nas.
The results of this study were recently published in the international academic journal The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.
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