What is what 🤓
Some terminology you’re going to see a lot throughout this app:
Accepted Foods
An accepted food is a food that your child eats willingly without being prompted, persuaded, or bribed to eat it. Accepted foods are not accepted 100% of the time because sometimes kids just aren’t hungry. If it is eaten the majority of the time it is served - it counts as an accepted food.
Avoidant Eating
Avoidant eating is a term used to cover many other commonly used terms like “picky” eating, “fussy” eating, “faddy” eating and “selective” eating. We prefer this term because most kids have genuine reasons for finding eating tricky and are not just being “picky”!
Avoidant eating is more neutral than words like “fussy” or “picky”. We also think it does a better job of capturing the range of eating challenges we see from typical toddler skepticism to kids with extremely limited and restricted food lists.
Division of Responsibility
The Division of Responsibility is a way of feeding children developed by Ellyn Satter, a dietitian and family therapist. Parents are responsible for the what, when, and where of meals and snacks. Children are responsible for how much and whether they eat the foods provided. (1,2)
Eating Opportunity
An eating opportunity is a structured and planned meal or snack.
Family/Buffet Style Serving
“Family style” or “buffet style” serving is when a selection of food is placed in the center of the table. Everyone starts with an empty plate and serves themselves.
Responsive Feeding
Responsive feeding means:
creating a pleasant, positive and structured mealtime environment
clearly communicating expectations
providing foods that are appropriate for your child’s age and developmental stage
providing food on a predictable schedule
recognizing and responding to your child’s hunger and fullness signals in an appropriate way. (3)
More simply - it means providing foods that your child can manage at structured mealtimes, then trusting your child to eat what they need in response to their body.
Self-Regulation
Self-regulation is one’s ability to regulate energy intake, eating the amount needed for healthy growth in response to the body’s signals of hunger and fullness.3,4
References:
Satter, E. M. (1986). The feeding relationship. J Am Diet Assoc, 86(3), 352-356.
Satter, E. (2012). Child of mine: Feeding with love and good sense. Bull Publishing Company.
Black, M. M., & Aboud, F. E. (2011). Responsive feeding is embedded in a theoretical framework of responsive parenting. The Journal of nutrition, 141(3), 490-494.
Birch, L. L., & Deysher, M. (1985). Conditioned and unconditioned caloric compensation: evidence for self-regulation of food intake in young children. Learning and motivation, 16(3), 341-355.