History of Developmental Studies on Eating Function

Abstract

Recently, there has been growing interest in food and eating in Japanese society, including public health and medical care. One of the topics that has emerged is functional development in eating. In child health, there have been many interdisciplinary studies between medicine and dentistry on mothering such as breastfeeding and weaning. In addition, many authors reported on eating function training in developmentally retarded children. In this article, we reviewed this area that has emerged over the last three decades. The analyses involved both public health and medical care, especially studies in Japan in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The importance of dental interventions on eating for normal physical and mental development in children might be increasing, irrespective of having a developmental disability regarding eating.