Three key factors contribute to children's desire to eat excess calories: 1) social desirability bias and lack of awareness of environmental eating cues can influence a child's eating behavior more than an adult's; 2) without adult guidance, a child is unable to properly monitor their energy intake; 3) binge eating large amounts of calories at once plays a significant role in childhood obesity development and maintenance. The document discusses reward systems, parental examples, and offering options as ways to motivate healthy food choices in children.

1. What contributes to
children’s desire to
eat excess calories?
 Social Desirability may
bias child’s own
thoughts and feelings
toward their eating
behavior(2)
 Less aware of the
impact their eating
environment has on
their cues compared to
adults(2)
 Child is not able to
monitor energy intake if
no adult influence is
available(2)
Excessive
Energy Intake
&
References
Childhood
Obesity
Today 9 million children in the United
States are considered to be overweight(1)
(1)
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http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.uvm.edu/science/article/pii/S019566
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and Long-Term beneficial Effects of Dietary-Behavioral-Physical Activity
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http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/115/4/e443.short Accessed
November 10, 2015.
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Developing Human Brain. 2010: 116. Available at:
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=J9zRzm88j-
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2. Balancing Energy
Consumption and
Expenditure
 Reward systems
 Setting Examples
 Options
Signs a child is consuming excess energy intake
Although genetics is a major variable in
determining body weight, other physiologic,
social, and behavioral factors have a large
impact as well. Binge eating that is common
among children who do not have control over
what or how much they are eating. Eating
large amounts of calories at a time have
shown to play a significant role in the
development and maintenance in obesity (3)
Whether a child is already overweight
because of excessive caloric intake or at
risk of becoming overweight/obese a
dietary-behavioral-physical activity
intervention will encourage long-term
effects because of the multidisciplinary
structure of the treatment (4)
.
Children respond to behavioral changes
at a high correlation when a desired
behavior is rewarded. Social interaction
is found to be a high motivating reward
in children (5)
. One example of this
reward system could be offering to bring
the child and a friend to your local
baseball game next weekend if they ate
all their vegetables every night at
dinner for the week.
Studies have found increased
socialization in the family unit has a
large influence on the child’s value of
behaviors such as exercise(6)
. Parents
who set active lifestyle examples for
their children will increase the
participation in such behaviors.
Children who are exposed to a
broadened variety of foods at an early
age are more likely to have a healthier
diet (7)
. Offering children options on
which fruit they would like in their
lunch for example is an easy way to give
them the choice, and also allows the
opportunity for new foods to be tried.
 Binge Eating
 Abnormal sleep patterns
 Behavioral problems
 Lack of Focus
 Low energy levels
Motivating
healthy food
choices