Children’s Hunger

The awareness of hunger begins very early in life. Those infants who are fed
on demand, whose cries of hunger determine the times at which they are
fed, are taught soon after they can feed themselves that their eating must
conform to family rules about when, what, and how much to eat in order to
satisfy their hunger. Infants fed on a schedule learn even earlier to conform
to external constraints and regulations regarding hunger. Throughout life,
responding to hunger by feeding oneself is nourishing both physiologically
and psychologically. Beginning in infancy, the sequences of getting hungry
and being fed establish the foundations of the relationship between the
physiological need or drive and the psychological components of feelings
such as affiliation, interaction, calm, and security when hunger is satisfied.
In preschool and early school years, when children are integrating themselves
into their social world, food acceptance and cultural practices are
learned. Prior to the peer group and school environment, the family and
media are usually the main vehicles of cultural socialization of the hunger
drive. According to social learning theory, these agents will play an important
role in the child’s learning to interpret his or her level of hunger and in
subsequent eating patterns, both directly and indirectly. The modeling behavior
of children is also related to hunger learning.
Experiences of hunger and satiety play a central role in a person’s relationship
to hunger awareness, eating, and food. Some dispositions that influence
hunger and eating behavior are long-term (fairly stable and enduring),
while other habits and attitudes may fluctuate. There are numerous
theories about the relation between the hunger drive and other factors such
as genetic inheritance and activity level.