Billy's Bad Table Manners May Signal Wider Problem

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Imperfect table manners, like spitting food out, appear quite common in the preschool set, though certain mealtime habits may signal a wider behavioral problem, a preliminary study suggests.

"Problem" eating is a common complaint among parents of young children, according to the authors of the study. Yet the prevalence of its various forms -- refusal to eat anything but bread, for example, or tossing dinner on the floor -- has been unclear.

In their study, researchers led by Dr. Peter M. Lewinsohn of the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene surveyed 93 mothers about their 3-year-olds' eating habits.

They found that the most common complaint was children's habit of spitting food out, reported by more than 78 percent of mothers. And almost as many said their children became upset when they were told they couldn't eat something, according to findings published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

Other common complaints had to do with children's fussiness. Just over one-third of mothers said their children pushed food away or threw it, and a similar number said their children were "picky" eaters -- usually eating foods like bread and cheese but refusing fish, vegetables and other fare.

Certain other problems, however, were reported by only a few mothers. For example, only 1 percent said their children sometimes ate so much that they became sick, and few children cried or became irritable at mealtime.

For the most part, problem behaviors seemed to be limited to mealtime, and were not clearly part of larger behavioral issues.

However, one-quarter of mothers said they often "struggled" with their children for control over meals. And these same mothers, the study found, also tended to report more general behavioral problems.

This, the researchers speculate, raises the question of whether control struggles over eating are often part of a "broader pattern of control problems" -- such as the behavioral disorder oppositional defiant disorder, in which children throw frequent temper tantrums and are excessively argumentative with adults.

Similarly, mothers of heavier children were more likely to report conflicts over food -- which, according to Lewinsohn and his colleagues, may mean that parents of overweight children try to restrict mealtime more so than parents of normal-weight children do.

The researchers stress, however, that this was only a preliminary study, and more research is needed to see whether control struggles over a 3-year-old's eating predict behavioral or weight problems later on.

On the other hand, common problem-eating complaints, like pickiness and tossing unwelcome foods, were not related to weight or any wider behavioral problems. Nor did they seem to signal any developmental delays.

Those findings, the researchers conclude, offer parents some assurance that these mealtime woes are a normal part of preschool eating habits.

SOURCE: International Journal of Eating Disorders, November 2005.