Mothers too often use food as an emotional tool to reward, bribe, entertain or settle their toddlers, even when they're not hungry, research has found.
A study of more than 350 Queensland mothers has revealed that many use food to influence children's behaviour or mood and frequently misreadbabies' signals.
About 25 per cent of mothers at least sometimes offered food if their child was bored, and around one third when a child was upset or to keep them occupied.
And almost half the mothers at least sometimes used food as a reward for good behaviour, said nutrition researcher Professor Lynne Daniels, from Queensland University of Technology.
"This emotional use of food is not related to hunger and satiety," Professor Daniels said.
"In fact it is undermining a child's ability to self-regulate and know to eat when they are hungry and not to eat when they're not."
The survey, involving 361 mothers of infants aged 12 to 36 months, concluded that many parents were not aware of, or were not reinforcing, positive eating habits.
"For example, we know children may need to be offered new foods about 10 times or more before they become familiar enough with the food to accept and like it," Professor Daniels said. "Only a third of mothers surveyed did this regularly."
It was also common for mothers to offer food rewards and to encourage children to eat more after they had signalled they had had enough.
