Development of Eating Behaviors Among Children and Adolescents -- Birch and Fisher 101 (3): 539 -- Pediatrics

Development of Eating Behaviors Among Children and Adolescents -- Birch and Fisher 101 (3): 539 -- Pediatrics: "An enormous amount of learning about food and eating occurs during the transition from the exclusive milk diet of infancy to the omnivore's diet consumed by early childhood. This early learning is constrained by children's genetic predispositions, which include the unlearned preference for sweet tastes, salty tastes, and the rejection of sour and bitter tastes. Children also are predisposed to reject new foods and to learn associations between foods' flavors and the postingestive consequences of eating. Evidence suggests that children can respond to the energy density of the diet and that although intake at individual meals is erratic, 24-hour energy intake is relatively well regulated."