An Appetite for Life: How to Feed Your Child from the Start

by Clare Llewellyn, Hayley Syrad

Overview

All the latest research on how to feed your child well—especially in their crucial first two years

One of the greatest challenges a parent faces is navigating their child’s appetite. From picky eaters to overeaters, babies and toddlers can be difficult to feed. Yet a parent’s job is to ensure that their child is receiving the nutrition they need. New research suggests that a child’s eating habits are shaped as early as pregnancy.

In An Appetite for Life, researchers Clare Llewellyn, PhD, and Hayley Syrad, PhD, separate fact from fad and share the latest reliable science to help you decide what’s best for you and your child.

• What to eat during pregnancy to ensure good maternal and infant health.
• Milk-feeding how-tos, with advice on both breastfeeding and formula.
• Baby’s essential first foods, including easy-to-follow guidance on weaning, introducing solid foods, and important nutrients.
• Balanced diets for toddlers, with feeding strategies for different eating styles.

This is an invaluable, evidence-based guide to your child’s unique appetite and what they need in order to eat well—for life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781615195404
Publisher:	The Experiment
Publication date:	05/14/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	708 KB

About the Author

Clare Llewellyn, PhD, is a chartered psychologist and associate professor of obesity at University College London, where she leads the Obesity Research Group and the Gemini twin study. In 2011 she completed her PhD at UCL on the nature and nurture of eating behavior and weight in early life and she has a long-standing fascination with the topic, which probably stems from having been a notoriously fussy eater as a child. A decade ago she helped establish Gemini, the largest twin study ever set up to explore the nature and nurture of eating behavior from the beginning of life. She has published nearly 100 scientific papers, articles and book chapters on this topic and has given over sixty invited talks worldwide at international organizations, such as the American Dietetic Association, the UK Royal Society of Medicine and the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition. She lives in London with her partner, Andy.

Hayley Syrad, PhD, is a chartered psychologist. She gained a first-class psychology bachelor’s degree at the University of Southampton in 2007 and a PhD in behavioral nutrition at the Health Behaviour Research Centre, University College London, in 2016. Her research has focused on the factors influencing what and how young children eat. She has used real-world dietary data from the largest twin study in the UK (Gemini) to explore children’s eating behaviors and has specifically examined the role of appetite and parental feeding practices. She uncovered the finding that children who are more food responsive tend to eat more often, and children with lower sensitivity to satiety tend to eat larger portions. Her research also showed that the portion size served to children can influence how much they consume (larger servings = more consumed), and she was the first researcher to provide evidence of this relationship. Hayley has published a number of articles on infant and toddler feeding.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 An Appetite for Life 12

Part 1 Pregnancy and the Early Days 33

Chapter 2 Pregnancy: The First 270 Days 35

Chapter 3 Your Baby's Early Growth 67

Part 2 Milk-Feeding 85

Chapter 4 Breastfeeding 88

Chapter 5 Formula-Feeding 128

Chapter 6 Responsive Feeding: The How of Milk-Feeding 152

Part 3 Introducing Solid Foods 183

Chapter 7 When to Introduce Solid Foods 185

Chapter 8 How to Introduce Solid Foods 195

Chapter 9 First Foods 213

Chapter 10 Your Guide to Introducing Solids 228

Part 4 Early Childhood 239

Chapter 11 The Importance of a Healthy Diet 242

Chapter 12 Responsive Feeding in the Toddler Years 261

Conclusion Final Thoughts 288

Appendix The Eating Behaviour Questionnaires 295

References 300

Acknowledgments 333

Index 335

About the Authors 346

Editorial Reviews

"Parents and caregivers will not only better understand their child’s appetite but will also be armed with the most recent scientific insights to help their child develop healthy eating habits."

Suburban Parent

Parents and caregivers will not only better understand their child’s appetite but will also be armed with the most recent scientific insights to help their child develop healthy eating habits.”—Suburban Parent

From the Publisher