Although children's food consumption is highly variable from meal to meal, daily energy intake is relatively constant, because children adjust their energy intake at successive meals.

Nausea and vomiting in anticipation of chemotherapy often develop in patients undergoing cancer treatment. Previously neutral environmental stimuli that are associated with treatment acquire aversive properties and elicit nausea, gagging, and/or retching, which are not controlled by available antiemetic drugs. In this study, deep muscle relaxation hypnosis controlled these conditioned reactions in all cases. Anticipatory emesis recurred when hypnosis was not used. During subsequent sessions in which hypnosis was reinstated, anticipatory emesis was again controlled.

The effects of consuming a novel food (halva) versus a familiar food (cookies) before gastrointestinal (GI) toxic chemotherapy on patients' preference for familiar foods consumed after chemotherapy treatment were compared. The development of aversions to the novel and familiar foods was also assessed. Patients with a history of posttreatment nausea consumed either a novel or a familiar food before chemotherapy and were asked to keep a food record through the next breakfast and to rate their preference for these foods. Patients who consumed halva before treatment were significantly more likely to increase their ratings for foods consumed after chemotherapy than patients who consumed familiar cookies. Aversions to the novel food were significantly more frequent than aversions to the familiar food. These findings provide evidence that a novel but not a familiar food consumed before chemotherapy can act as a scapegoat to prevent items in the regular diet consumed after chemotherapy from decreasing in preference. Providing patients with a novel food before chemotherapy is a useful clinical intervention to reduce the likelihood of forming aversions to familiar foods consumed after chemotherapy.

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