Children aged 4 to 5 years old in five classes at four London primary schools were recruited to a study of children's eating behaviour. Information sheets, consent forms and questionnaires were sent home to parents. Those who wished to participate completed consent forms and questionnaires and returned both to their child's class teacher. The questionnaire included the six-item version of the Child Food Neophobia Scale (CFNS; [10 (link)]) that we have used in previous research [7 (link),8 (link)]. The original CFNS is a 10-item scale to measure children's willingness to sample new foods, scores on which correlate highly with behavioural measures of neophobia. Four items were excluded on the basis that they were innapropriate for the age range of our sample (e.g. "My child likes to eat in ethnic restaurants). The six remaining items were: "My child does not trust new foods", "If my child doesn't know what's in a food, s/he won't try it", "My child is afraid to eat things s/he has never had before", "My child will eat almost anything" (reverse scored), "My child is very particular about the foods s/he will eat" and "My child is constantly sampling new and different foods" (reverse scored). Responses are on a 4 point scale from 'strongly disagree' to 'strongly agree'. Higher scores indicate higher neophobia. Cronbach's alpha for the 6-item version was 0.92 in this sample.
Children's food intake was recorded over 3 'test' lunchtime meals at school at weekly intervals. The study was part of a three-day repeated measures study of intake regulation, so on two out of the three days (Days 2 and 3), children were given a 200 ml orange squash drink prior to lunch. On one day this squash contained 5 kcal and on the other day the squash contained 174 kcal; drink conditions were counter-balanced across days. On Day 1 children received no preload drink, forming a control condition. Children participated in all conditions providing they were present on the day in question. Actions taken to account for the preload design are described in the Results section.
The test meal comprised weighed portions of chicken slices, cheese, bread roll with margarine, cheese crackers, chocolate biscuits, grapes and tomatoes or carrot sticks, served cold and presented to each child in an individual compartmented container. Tomatoes had been planned for all meals, but in the first class visited, a large number of children reported disliking tomatoes, so children in the remaining 4 classes were given sticks of raw carrot instead. To maintain consistency, children in the first class were given tomatoes at all subsequent meals. Children were not required to 'clean their plates, but were told to eat as much or as little of the meal as they wished.
Extra pre-weighed portions of bread rolls were offered when children had finished their original servings and unlimited water was provided. Children were observed throughout the meals in order to ensure that food was not shared. Children raised their hand to indicate when they had finished their meal and containers were then collected by researchers and sealed. Foods were subsequently weighed to establish intake in grammes of each food type. Energy content (kcal) of processed foods (chicken slices, cheese slices, cheese crackers, and chocolate biscuits) was calculated using manufacturers' information. McCance and Widdowson's 'The Composition of Foods' [11 ] was used to calculate energy content of the remaining foods (bread, grapes, tomatoes and carrots).
Children's food intake was recorded over 3 'test' lunchtime meals at school at weekly intervals. The study was part of a three-day repeated measures study of intake regulation, so on two out of the three days (Days 2 and 3), children were given a 200 ml orange squash drink prior to lunch. On one day this squash contained 5 kcal and on the other day the squash contained 174 kcal; drink conditions were counter-balanced across days. On Day 1 children received no preload drink, forming a control condition. Children participated in all conditions providing they were present on the day in question. Actions taken to account for the preload design are described in the Results section.
The test meal comprised weighed portions of chicken slices, cheese, bread roll with margarine, cheese crackers, chocolate biscuits, grapes and tomatoes or carrot sticks, served cold and presented to each child in an individual compartmented container. Tomatoes had been planned for all meals, but in the first class visited, a large number of children reported disliking tomatoes, so children in the remaining 4 classes were given sticks of raw carrot instead. To maintain consistency, children in the first class were given tomatoes at all subsequent meals. Children were not required to 'clean their plates, but were told to eat as much or as little of the meal as they wished.
Extra pre-weighed portions of bread rolls were offered when children had finished their original servings and unlimited water was provided. Children were observed throughout the meals in order to ensure that food was not shared. Children raised their hand to indicate when they had finished their meal and containers were then collected by researchers and sealed. Foods were subsequently weighed to establish intake in grammes of each food type. Energy content (kcal) of processed foods (chicken slices, cheese slices, cheese crackers, and chocolate biscuits) was calculated using manufacturers' information. McCance and Widdowson's 'The Composition of Foods' [11 ] was used to calculate energy content of the remaining foods (bread, grapes, tomatoes and carrots).
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