DrAlissa Burnett

A central focus of Alissa's research is understanding how children's eating behaviours develop and how parents influence these behaviours across early childhood. Her work examines food fussiness, food preferences, appetite-related behaviours, and parental feeding practices, with the goal of identifying factors that support healthy dietary intake.

She leads the Longitudinal Assessment of Children's Eating (LACE) study, a prospective cohort examining the bidirectional relationships between children's eating behaviours and parental feeding practices from infancy through early childhood. This work contributes to understanding how eating behaviours develop and informs strategies to support children and families.

She has also developed an innovative intervention to promote vegetable intake and reduce food fussiness in young children. She leads an interdisciplinary program of research exploring the use of picture books as a tool to encourage children's acceptance of vegetables. This work brings together expertise from nutrition, behavioural science, and visual communication design to develop engaging, evidence-based resources for families and early childhood education settings.