More than just a pretty face. The relationship between infant’s temperament, food acceptance, and mothers’ perceptions of their enjoyment of food

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to determine whether mothers’ assessment of their infants’ temperament is associated with objective measures of their infant’s acceptance patterns and their judgments of their infants' liking of a green vegetable. To this end, infants (N=92) were video-recorded as their mothers fed them green beans. From these videos, we determined the frequency of facial distaste expressions made during the first two minutes of the feeding. Other measures included intake, maternal ratings of infants’ enjoyment of this vegetable, and temperament. Infants who scored high on the approach dimension of the temperament questionnaire were less likely to express facial expressions of distaste, consumed more food, and were perceived by their mothers as enjoying the food more. Mediation analyses revealed that ratings of enjoyment were not directly related to the child’s approach temperament, but rather the relationship between mothers’ ratings and temperament was mediated by the amount of time infants spent eating the vegetable. Regression analyses suggested that in addition to the length of time children ate, mothers’ ratings of their infants’ enjoyment was predicted by the number of squints that the infant expressed during the meal. These findings suggest that although certain aspects of children’s temperament are related to their food acceptance mothers attend to facial expressions and time spent eating independently of these temperamental characteristics when judging their infant’s enjoyment of a food. Understanding how mothers use this information to decide which foods to feed their infants is an important area for future research.

Flavor Perception and Preference Development in Human Infants

“…For example, children who were high in approach temperament were less likely to express facial expressions of distaste (i.e., gape) and consumed more of a bitter green vegetable [65] . Infants with approach temperaments may be more likely to try a greater variety of fruits and vegetables before the onset of neophobia at around 2 years of age.…”

Understanding infant eating behaviour – Lessons learned from observation

“…These responses are assessed in the laboratory by researchers and by asking caregivers (usually mothers) to make a judgment of how much their infant likes a food (Forestell and Mennella, 2007, Forestell and Mennella, 2012, Mennella et al, 2001, Maier et al, 2008. Although this measure of liking can be direct, it is subjective, open to bias and the criteria ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT…”

“…In assessing infant liking, facial expressions have been coded extensively in infants (Mennella and Beauchamp, 1997;Mennella et al, 2001;Forestell and Mennella, 2007, Mennella et al, 2009, Forestell and Mennella, 2012, Soussignan et al, 1997, Rosenstein and Oster, 1988. The Facial Action Coding System; FACS (Ekman and Friesen, 1978) is widely accepted as a measurement tool to code facial expressions in humans by detecting facial movements.…”

“…A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T (Forestell and Mennella, 2012, Mennella and Beauchamp, 1997, Forestell and Mennella, 2007, Mennella et al, 2009. A study by Mennella et al (2009) examined the effect of exposure to milk formulas with different sensory properties on liking and intake in infants aged 4 9 months.…”

“…For example, babies have more facial fat and more elastic skin than adults giving a different and a smoother facial response. Facial expression coding from the BABY FACS has been implemented in several studies to assess food liking in infants and older children (Forestell and Mennella, 2012, Forestell and Mennella, 2007, Zeinstra et al, 2009, Mennella et al, 2009, Soussignan et al, 1997, Rosenstein and Oster, 1988.…”