3-131 - Responsive feeding in infancy: Protection against child obesity

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

In the developmental literature, the importance of responsive parenting draws on attachment, socialization, ecological, and transactional theories. For example, cognitive and language development in toddlers is more advanced among those who received responsive social interactions during infancy. Responsive parenting reflects reciprocity between the infant and caregiver, where: 1) the caregiver creates a routine and emotional context that promotes interaction; 2) the infant responds and provides signals to the caregiver; 3) the caregiver responds promptly in a manner that is contingent and supportive; and 4) the infant experiences predictable responses (Black & Aboud, 2011). In recent years, the concept of responsive parenting has been applied to the feeding context, with much of the research focusing on the consequences of non-responsive feeding. Nonresponsive feeding is dominated by a lack of reciprocity between the caregiver and infant, because the caregiver overly controls the feeding situation, the infant controls the situation, or the caregiver ignores the infant’s signals.

With rates of child obesity at epidemic level, indeed, with worrisome rates even in infancy, researchers have begun to relate responsive feeding, or rather, nonresponsive feeding, to excess weight gain in the early years (diSantis et al., 2011). The goal of this symposium is to educate the audience as to the concept of responsive feeding, stress its role in healthy weight gain from a global perspective, describe a new methodology for its measurement, and illustrate a novel intervention that can improve responsive feeding to aid in preventing early obesity.

Sub Unit

• Health, Growth, Injury

Chair

• John Worobey, Rutgers University

Discussant

• John Worobey, Rutgers University

Individual Presentations

• Responsive feeding in infancy from a global perspective - Presenting Author: Maureen Black, University of Maryland and RTI International; Kristen M Hurley, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

• A sociophysiologic approach to responsive feeding in infancy - Presenting Author: Eric A Hodges, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Nursing; Cathi Propper, Center for Developmental Science, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Michael B Schultz, University of North Carolna-Chapel Hill School of Nursing; Jessica S Bahorski, University of Alabama-Birmingham School of Nursing

• Can opaque, weighted bottles promote mothers’ responsive bottle-feeding practices? - Presenting Author: Alison K Ventura, California Polytechnic State University; Teresa Sanchez, California Polytechnic State University; Simone Teitelbaum, California Polytechnic State University; Alexandra Hernandez, California Polytechnic State University