The 3rd edition of the European Congress on Maternal and Child Nutrition took place from 24 to 26 October, at Eng. António de Almeida Foundation, in Oporto, and was the stage for the presentation of the poster entitled “Influence of Anthropometric and Sociodemographic Factors on Eating Behaviors in Young Children” by researchers Cátia Pontes, Sara Dias and the research fellow Rita Novo, which was awarded the 2nd best poster at the congress.

Presented by co-author Cátia Pontes, this work aimed to relate anthropometric and sociodemographic characteristics with feeding behavior in children between 2 and 10 years old accompanied in a private pediatric clinic, in Leiria.

The 94 complete responses to the CEBQ (Children’s Eating Behaviour Questionnaire) allowed the research team to conclude that the Body Mass Index (BMI) is associated with the pleasure of eating (Enjoyment of Food dimension), that the Slowness in Eating dimension and the total score of CEBQ is higher in female children, and that these results reinforce the importance of promoting an adequate eating behavior from an early age, in order to contribute and promote a healthy nutritional state in the future.

The results of this work also demonstrate that children between 2 and 3 years had significantly higher Enjoyment of Food values compared to children aged six or older.

The overall results reinforce the importance of promoting an adequate eating behavior from an early age, in order to contribute and promote a healthy nutritional state in the future.