title: Communicating hunger and satiation in the first 2 years of life: a systematic review.
abstract: Responsive feeding has been identified as important in preventing overconsumption by infants. However, this is predicated on an assumption that parents recognise and respond to infant feeding cues. Despite this, relatively little is understood about how infants engage parental feeding responses. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review was to identify what is known about infant communication of hunger and satiation and what issues impact on the expression and perception of these states. A search of Medline, CINAHL, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Science Direct and Maternal and Infant care produced 27 papers. Eligibility criteria included peer reviewed qualitative and/or quantitative publications on feeding behaviours, hunger, and satiation/satiety cues of typically developing children in the first 2 years of life. Papers published between 1966 and 2013 were included in the review. The review revealed that feeding cues and behaviours are shaped by numerous issues, such as infants' physical attributes, individual psychological factors and environmental factors. Meanwhile, infant characteristics, external cues and mothers' own characteristics affect how feeding cues are perceived. The existing literature provides insights into many aspects of hunger and satiation in infancy; however, there are significant gaps in our knowledge. There is a lack of validated tools for measuring hunger and satiation, a need to understand how different infant characteristics impact on feeding behaviour and a need to extricate the respective contributions of infant and maternal characteristics to perceptions of hunger and satiation. Further research is also recommended to differentiate between feeding driven by liking and that driven by hunger.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McNally
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: Siobhan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hugh-Jones
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Caton
authors.affiliation: Danone Nutricia Research, Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Carel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vereijken
authors.affiliation: Danone Nutricia Research, Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Weenen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hetherington
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005518:Food Preferences; D006801:Humans; D006815:Hunger; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior; D041943:Infant Formula; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016239:MEDLINE; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D009068:Movement; D012527:Satiation; D013391:Sucking Behavior
keywords: behaviour; communication; cue; hunger; infant feeding; satiation