The Children’s Eating Laboratory at CNRC

Eating behavior is the link between the foods that surround us and our actual dietary intake. Studying the eating behaviors, food preferences, and eating interactions of infants, children, and families help researchers under-stand health outcomes and make better recommendations.

The Children’s Eating Laboratory at CNRC is one of a handful of laboratories across the nation designed specifically to study the development of eating behaviors. The controlled, child-friendly environment allows researchers to make structured observations of children eating. This enables them to focus on a single aspect of eating while keeping all other influences constant.

The Children’s Eating Laboratory is divided into an observation area and monitoring rooms. The brightly decorated dining room contains height-adjustable tables and chairs and can be divided into two separate spaces using a floor to ceiling sound-insulated divider. An adjacent monitoring room is equipped with two-way mirrors as well as devices for video and sound recording, editing, and analysis.

One of the staff’s goals is to make the laboratory as inviting as possible for children and their families, even though it is in the midst of a major medical center. This helps children feel at ease and comfortable so they are more likely to eat as they normally would. The Children’s Eating Laboratory is a busy place. Within the last five years, more than 1000 hours of mother/infant interaction have been videotaped and reviewed. Studies of food choice in pre-school aged children are currently in progress.