Dealing with a fussy baby or a determined toddler can be challenging for caregivers. Recent research focused on emotional overeating in 3-year-olds reveals that how caregivers handle infants’ and toddlers’ negative emotions like disappointment, fear, and anger can impact the development of emotional overeating.
A study conducted at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign monitored over 350 children from birth to age 3 and found a connection between infants’ temperaments and the development of emotional overeating by age 3. However, the responses of caregivers to children’s negative emotions were also found to play a significant role.
Emotional overeating, as defined in the study, refers to consuming food as a way to handle emotions rather than in response to hunger.
When evaluating the children’s temperaments, researchers considered their orienting responses — their ability to engage with, maintain, and disengage attention from external stimuli as infants and toddlers.
Sehyun Ju, a graduate student in human development and family studies and the first author of the study, stated, “Our findings indicate that if a child can better focus attention and regulate emotions during infancy, caregivers are more likely to provide supportive responses, leading the child to be less inclined to turn to food for emotional regulation.”
Supportive responses from caregivers involved using problem-solving techniques to help a child in distress, acknowledging and addressing the child’s emotions, or offering encouragement. Conversely, non-supportive responses included punishing a child for showing emotions or downplaying their feelings.
Previous research suggests that emotional eating is influenced more by individuals’ emotional regulation abilities rather than the emotions themselves, as highlighted in the study published in Frontiers in Psychology.
According to Ju, parents should understand that emotional overeating is a complex behavior shaped by caregivers’ reactions to their child’s emotions, the child’s temperament, and their ability to manage emotions.
The findings come from participants in the STRONG Kids 2 birth cohort study at the University of Illinois, which examines environmental and biological factors affecting children’s weight and eating habits up to age 9.
When the children were 3 months, 18 months, and 3 years old, caregivers were surveyed on their children’s eating behaviors, personality traits, emotional regulation skills, and reactions to stimuli.
By presenting scenarios where a child expressed negative emotions, caregivers indicated their likelihood of responding supportively through problem-solving or non-supportively through punishment.
The study found that infants displaying high levels of cheerfulness, sociability, and spontaneity at 3 months old were more likely to engage in emotional overeating at age 3. Eating behaviors were also influenced by the child’s ability to adapt to stimuli and regulate emotions, with caregiver responses to negative emotions significantly impacting the likelihood of emotional overeating.
Reflecting on the results, Samantha Iwinski emphasized the interconnectedness within the family system. Early behaviors can have a lasting impact, underscoring the need for interventions and support at various developmental stages.
Addressing emotional overeating is crucial due to its association with unhealthy weight gain, which can lead to serious health issues in children like Type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Ju stressed that supportive responses to children’s negative emotions are vital for both their psychological and physical well-being as they influence how children learn to manage emotions and approach food.
