Infants And Toddlers in Group Care: Feeding Practices That Foster Emotional Health

The quality of child-teacher interactions during daily child care routines plays a significant role in young children's development. The nature of mealtimes--the pace, the caregiver's responsiveness, how food is offered--affects infants' and toddlers' emotional health. Maintainin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:YC young children 2008-11, Vol.63 (6), p.28-33
Main Authors: Branscomb, Kathryn R., Goble, Carla B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Bottles
Caregivers
Child Behavior
Child Development
Children
Children & youth
Cues
Cultural identity
Eating Habits
Emotional Development
Emotional Problems
Families & family life
Food
Food preparation
Guidelines
Hunger
Infants
Interpersonal Communication
Mealtimes
Mental Health
Obesity
Preschool children
Psychological Patterns
RESEARCH TO PRACTICE
Teacher Role
Teacher Student Relationship
Toddlers
Trust (Psychology)
Young Children
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Summary:The quality of child-teacher interactions during daily child care routines plays a significant role in young children's development. The nature of mealtimes--the pace, the caregiver's responsiveness, how food is offered--affects infants' and toddlers' emotional health. Maintaining consistency between how children are fed at home and at the center respects the family's culture and traditions and nurtures positive attachment at an early age. Infants learn about themselves and others. They begin to develop expectations of how they will be treated in relationships and to develop feelings of trust and security. In this article, the authors focus on research-based best practices for feeding babies and toddlers in group care and how these daily routines are opportunities for caregivers to promote healthy emotional development. Although much of the research in this area has been conducted with mothers, the findings are applicable to early care and education teachers who serve as surrogate parents for young children.
ISSN:1538-6619
1941-2002