title: Influences on children's dietary behavior, and innovative attempts to change it.
abstract: Fruit and vegetable (FV) intake may protect against several chronic diseases, and the preferences and habits in relation to FV intake appear to form in early childhood. Child FV intake reflects many influences from multiple levels (e.g. internal to the child, family, school, and neighborhood). We have documented influences at each of these levels, but more definitive research in longitudinal samples remains to be conducted. Even though validated comprehensive models of influences on child FV intake in longitudinal studies are not available to guide intervention design for children of different ages, there has been an urgency to initiate chronic disease prevention interventions to mitigate the substantial health consequences. Effective interventions use known behavior change procedures to change the influences on FV intake enough to change the behavior, but few such interventions have demonstrated effectiveness at meaningful levels. Innovative methods need to be explored. Videogames for Health offer a medium that is attractive to children and shows promising results, especially for dietary behavior change. Exciting additional research is needed to clarify possible bidirectional influences between the environmental and individual influences on child intake with possible age-related differences in influence and in the optimal design of video games for dietary change.
authors: USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA. tbaranow@bcm.edu
authors: Tom
authors: T
authors: Baranowski
authors: Cassandra
authors: C
authors: Diep
authors: Janice
authors: J
authors: Baranowski
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D001628:Beverages; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002417:Cattle; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004034:Diet Surveys; D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004044:Dietary Proteins / Q000008:administration & dosage; D002149:Energy Intake; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005527:Food, Fortified; D005638:Fruit; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007225:Infant Food; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D019266:Iron, Dietary / Q000008:administration & dosage; D008892:Milk / Q000737:chemistry; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000737:chemistry; D050177:Overweight / Q000517:prevention & control; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014481:United States; D014675:Vegetables
chemical_list: D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates; D004041:Dietary Fats; D004044:Dietary Proteins; D019266:Iron, Dietary