ABSTRACT
This chapter is important for any clinician working with parents who are concerned about their child’s eating habits, body image, shape, and weight. The chapter summarizes key aspects of the healthy and potentially unhealthy development of feeding and eating behaviors in infants and children. It provides context to help parents navigate early childhood feeding. This chapter will help clinicians assess, identify, and intervene in eating problems, should they occur. For normally-developing babies, the first feeding and eating experiences are dependent on a combination of innate reflexes and parental guidance. In these first several months of life, parents are focused on observing their infants, learning and responding to their sleep and hunger cues, and interacting with them by talking, smiling, and expressing affection. As toddlers and preschoolers progress to participating in family meals and eating the same foods as their family members, family meals support the development in the child of an interest in trying new foods as well as general communication skills. These capabilities, in turn, facilitate positive mealtime interactions and healthy weight management. The chapter also reviews complications for the normal processes, and how clinicians can guide parents should their child present with significant eating and feeding problems.
