This paper describes the development and preliminary validation of the Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ), a parent-rated instrument designed to assess eight dimensions of eating style in children. The constructs included in the CEBQ were derived from existing literature on eating behavior and interviews with parents. The initial pool of items was refined through analysis of responses from three samples of families with young children, resulting in a 35-item instrument with eight scales that were internally valid and had good test-retest reliability. The scales covered food responsiveness, enjoyment of food, satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, fussiness, emotional overeating, emotional undereating, and desire for drinks. The CEBQ showed minimal gender differences in eating style but revealed that satiety responsiveness and slowness in eating decreased from age 3 to 8, while enjoyment of food and food responsiveness increased. The CEBQ is expected to be useful for research into the early precursors of obesity or eating disorders, particularly in the context of the growing evidence for the heritability of obesity.This paper describes the development and preliminary validation of the Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ), a parent-rated instrument designed to assess eight dimensions of eating style in children. The constructs included in the CEBQ were derived from existing literature on eating behavior and interviews with parents. The initial pool of items was refined through analysis of responses from three samples of families with young children, resulting in a 35-item instrument with eight scales that were internally valid and had good test-retest reliability. The scales covered food responsiveness, enjoyment of food, satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, fussiness, emotional overeating, emotional undereating, and desire for drinks. The CEBQ showed minimal gender differences in eating style but revealed that satiety responsiveness and slowness in eating decreased from age 3 to 8, while enjoyment of food and food responsiveness increased. The CEBQ is expected to be useful for research into the early precursors of obesity or eating disorders, particularly in the context of the growing evidence for the heritability of obesity.