Why is Responsive Feeding Important Over Traditional or Baby led Weaning?

What is Responsive Feeding?

In simple words, responsive feeding means, responding to your baby’s hunger and fullness cues. It describes a two-way feeding relationship between parent or caregiver and child. Parent or caregiver is to pay close attention and respond accordingly to both hunger cues and to fullness cues to avoid overeating or undereating.

These cues can be verbal or nonverbal so paying close attention during feeding routine is important. Following responsive feeding will help the child to build a healthy relationship with food and learn to self-regulate their food intake in long term.

Why to choose responsive feeding?

We want to teach and encourage good habits in our kids since childhood, as early as the age of 1. While we focus on all other areas of development, healthy eating habits take a back seat.

Parents and caregivers assume that a child doesn’t understand the hunger or fullness cues thus they want to follow a predictable meal routine and decide the quantity for the babies or toddlers.

When we push the babies to eat when they are not hungry or to eat more than what they want, it may teach them unhealthy eating habits, putting them at a higher risk of obesity.

It is really important that babies eat when they are hungry and should eat only as much as they need. Letting a child decide the quantity is an important aspect of responsive feeding.

Baby Led weaning is usually associated with self-feeding and independent feeding as it allows baby’s control on their solid’s consumption from the start of their experience with food. But some parents not being satisfied with the food intake try to top up with formula milk or animal’s milk (over 1 year of age); which defeats the purpose of BLW.

By choosing responsive feeding:

• Help your child self-regulate their food intake
• Help your child establish healthy eating habits
• Help your child to learn how to feed himself
• Lower your child’s risk to obesity and other health problems as he gets older
• Establish a bond with your baby and make meal times easier and less stressful

Babies will be independent eaters as long as you follow responsive feeding irrespective of spoon feeding or baby led weaning.

Identifying the Hungers cues

Instead of following a meal routine and defining the food quantity for your child, identify and respond to their verbal & non-verbal cues.

You child may be hungry when he:

• Reaches for food or points at food
• Get excited at the sight of food
• Open his mouth on offering food or spoon
• Make sounds, words or hand gestures to let you know that he is hungry

Identifying the Fullness cues

Parents or caregivers are usually prompt to respond to their baby’s hunger cues but fail to identify and respond to their fullness cues.

Responding to fullness cues is important for successful responsive feeding. You need to pay close attention to understand how your baby communicates that he is full.

Your child may be full when he:

• Closes his mouth on offering food
• Turns his head away from food
• Loses interest in eating and starts playing with it
• Pushes away or throws away food and enjoys it
• Slows down pace of eating
• Shaking head in ‘no’

At times, babies get overwhelmed and take a break from eating even when they are not full. Thus, identifying when the baby is full or taking a break will require close attention to their eating routine.

If baby shows signs of fullness, then parents should stop feeding the child, even if he has eaten less than usual or your expectation. Offer food again when they show hunger cues instead of making them eat when they don’t want.

When the baby is fed even after he is full or does not desire to eat any more, it may lead to overeating and cause health problems like:

• Vomiting after eating
• Spit up when they burp
• Fussiness or crying after meals
• Feeling uncomfortable and irritable after meals

First Steps to Responsive Feeding

 The first step to responsive feeding is to stop some practices which may have been passed on by our elder generations. There are some basic Don’ts that a parent or caregiver needs to follow for adapting responsive feeding.

• The 2-bite rule: Perusing the baby to have 2 bites even when they are not hungry, but it is time to eat is a parental instinct which must be avoided.
• The last bite rule: We often tend to push our baby to finish that last bite or offer them another bite by promising it to be last bite. (Oh! I was guilty of that too)
• The airplane trick: Making sounds or faces to make the baby laugh and pushing food in his mouth as soon as he opens to give a reaction. Flying planes which land in their mouths are a No-No too.
• Distraction Feeding: Using screens like TV, phone or tablet to distract the child paves a path for unhealthy eating. It may seem like an easy and faster way to feed the child now but may be a primary cause of overweight and obesity issues in future.
• ‘Normal’ eating expectations: Every child is different and so are their appetite and their food preferences. A child may eat a food of preference more than the other food offered and vice-versa. Make peace with it instead of fussing over it.
• ‘Normal’ weight expectations: Some babies may lag in weight gain as per the standard growth chart which may encourage parents to feed excessively to their child. It is normal to put on the weight at a different rate for different babies as it is governed by various factors. A pediatrician is best to assess the weight of the child and suggest measures if required.

Tips to make mealtimes easier

• Make the food look attractive. Don’t you feel tempting to try a food if it has an eye-pleasing plating. You don’t need to take MasterChef course instead adding colors to their plate or cutting the food in various shapes helps. There are variety of food cutters available in market.
• Talk about food to stimulate interest in babies. Spark an interest about the food for your kid to explore it more. Talk how the food lifecycle, color, shapes, what all dishes can you make from a given ingredient etc.
• Focus on variety and quality than quantity. Having a colorful plate intrigues them and provides nourishment too. Try new simple recipes to add an oomph to regular food. Get quick and easy recipes here.
• Offer small meals as per hunger cues than increasing the quantity for a meal. Encourage second serving so that you can control the food wastage making the process less stressful for you.
• Increase quantity of the meal gradually once the baby is accustomed to his meal routine.
• Provide a nurturing and affectionate environment for mealtimes. Environment plays an important role. Nobody wants to have food in stressed environment. Try to sit with the child and make them feel loved.
  
• Do not put pressure on them for eating and DON’T force feed. Don’t sound it like a task or they will try to run away from it. If they are busy with an activity, try after sometime. Serve the food at the table, at time eyes do the trick.
  
• Don’t react aggressively when they are not eating or throwing food. Kids love to explore their food in their own way. You need to regulate them rather than yelling at them.
• Make them a part of Family Meal Time. Family that eats together, stays together. If your kid is young and has already eaten; make them sit at the table or hand them a piece from your plate.
• Forget the ‘clean plate’ rule. It is the hardest part but forcing them to finish the food is only going to draw them away. Your child does not need to finish all the food on the plate. Instead need to eat as much his tummy wants at that moment. Serve in small quantities if you had food waste like me.