Research Interests

I have been working in the field of children’s eating behaviour for over twenty years. In that time much of my research has focussed on the biological, affective and cognitive factors of parents and their children which influence parent-child interaction, particularly in the context of feeding and eating problems. I have a particular interest in children’s fussy eating including poor fruit and vegetable acceptance, emotional eating, and obesity.

My broad research interests are:

• Early origins of children’s emotional eating.

• Breastfeeding, complementary feeding practices, childhood feeding practices.

• Development of flavour preferences.

• Individual differences in sensory processing, particularly of taste.

• Children’s fruit and vegetable consumption.

• Feeding problems and eating behaviour in children with disorders such as autism.

• Maternal mental health and parent child interaction.

• Infant gut microbiome: relationships with early diet and infant development.

• Fetal facial expression in response to flavour stimuli in utero.

• Cultural differences in feeding and eating behaviour.