OBJECTIVES: Review the literature, exploring factors that contribute to the development of children's eating behavior such as the role of learning and social context. METHODS: The review of the literature was done using Medline, Psyclit, and Lilacs as resources for assessing international and national research articles on child nutrition, with an emphasis on children's eating behavior. These articles were revised and grouped together according to the topic. RESULTS: Family is responsible for the development of children's eating behavior through social learning. Parents are children's first nutritional educators. Children's eating experiences are influenced by cultural and psychosocial factors. Social context plays a relevant role in this process, especially through the strategies used by parents to encourage children to have a balanced diet and to eat specific foods. These strategies may contain adequate and inadequate stimuli as to the development of children's food preference and food intake self-control. CONCLUSION: The learning process is a determining factor for children's eating behavior, and is associated with three factors: food flavor conditioning, food postingestional consequences, and social context. Parents are deeply concerned with the amount of food their children eat and not with the development of more adequate habits and attitudes related to dietary quality.