Healthy Feedingfor a Healthy

Weight

Healthy Feeding for a

Healthy Weight

WIC’s job is to help families and children get a healthy start on a healthy weight.

Emphasize healthy growth, not healthy weight

Levels of Intervention with Feeding

Primary

Education, early problem-solving

Secondary

Detailed evaluation and treatment

Tertiary

Detailed evaluation and treatment of complex problems with other specialists (i.e. MD, therapist, etc.)

WIC Primary Intervention:Education and early problem-solving

Support a healthy feeding relationship.

Teach stage-related feeding.

Explain normal growth.

Encourage age-appropriate active play.

Promote other healthy behaviors.

What is healthy growth?

?

Children are excellent regulators and tend to grow in accordance with

their genetics.

Children Tend To Grow Predictably

Weight for age 0-24m Length for age 0-24m

It’s not a perfect system…it can get off track.

Growth divergencemay or may not be normal.

Slow growth divergence over

timeis likely to be

normal.Weight for age 2–20 years

Rapid growth divergence may

be normal.

Weight for length0–18 months

Rapid growth divergence may not be normal.

Weight for age 0-36 months

Asking the Right Questions

How is feeding going with your child?

How do you feel about the meals and snacks that your child usually eats?

Is there anything about mealtime that you would like to be different?

How do you feel about your child’s size and shape? How do feel about her growth pattern?

Do you, or anyone else, have any concerns or questions about how your child is growing?

Interfering with feeding may lead to weight gain and/or other feeding problems.

What is interfering??

Division of Responsibility

Adults are responsible for what is presented, when and where it is presented.

Children are responsible for whether to eat and how much to eat.

Division of Responsibility

Crossing the division of responsibility can lead to problems.

Restricting food scares children and makes them overeat when they can.

Pressuring children to eat makes them less interested in those foods.

Division of Responsibility

Research reveals:

Caregivers understand and accept the adult’s role in feeding.

Caregivers have more trouble with the child’s role in feeding.

Adults need reassurance to trust a child’s ability to self-regulate.

Division of Responsibility

Research reveals:

Children will eat.

They know how much to eat.

They will grow predictably.

They will eat a variety of foods.

Their eating skills mature with age.

Division of Responsibility

Parents who can utilize primary intervention are able to:

Self-evaluate.

Accept the child’s point of view.

Set aside agendas.

Incorporate advice.

What is a healthy eater?

A Healthy Eater

Eats from internal cues.

Enjoys a variety of foods.

Experiments with new food.

Maintains a healthy weight.

Ages and Stages of Raisinga Healthy Eater

Age Parent Job Child AbilitiesInfants

Birth–9 months

– Attend to cues– Offer appropriate food– Feed child– Child centered routine

– Knows hunger/ fullness

Toddlers

9–24 months

– Routines for eating– Variety and experience– Utensils & physical

structure– Opportunities for mastery

– Knows hunger/ fullness

– Self-feeding begins– Limited verbal

communication

Early childhood

2–5 years

– Routines for eating– Variety and experience– Utensils – Opportunities for mastery– Eating with child

– Knows hunger/ fullness

– Self-feed– Self-serve– Conversation

The Newborn

Bonding with baby for alifetime of healthy eating

The Newborn

Establish feeding relationship.

Feed based on baby’s cues.

Accept baby’s growth patterns.

Trust different feeding patterns.

The Toddler

Making the transition to solid foods

The Toddler

Establish a regular routine.

Choose “safe” foods.

Offer different foods to enjoy.

Let child decide how much or how little to eat.

The Preschooler

Accept drive to “do it myself”

The Preschooler

Eat together as a family.

Offer a variety of foods.

Avoid pressure to eat.

Allow child to “experiment” with food and eating.

Talking to Parents AboutGrowth and Feeding

What Parents Want

To have happy, smart kids

To be seen as experts on the subject of their own kids

To be seen as acting in their kids’ best interest

To make parenting as easy as possible

It’s Not What You Say…As Much As How You Say It

Instead of …

You have to quit feeding him so much!

Your child has to get more exercise now!

Your child is getting severely overweight.

Parent is on the defensive – with no choices.

What about …

What fruits and veggies does your family enjoy?

How often do you get to play at the park?

How do you feel about how your child is growing?

Parent is able to express his/her concerns.

Suggest the Right Amount of Change

Consider the barriers and the benefits to change.

Trust the client to determine how muchchange they think they can do.

Be ready to accept no change since this may open a door for future change.

Roles and Responsibilities

Your job is to provide information and support positive choices.

The client’s job is to decide whether to change and how much change to make.

Healthy Children Come In All Sizes