The Ellen Satter Institute’s Division of Responsibility in Feeding Approach
In this article, you’ll learn about the recommendations of Ellen Satter and the Ellen Satter Institute, as well as the Division of Responsibility in Feeding approach, which outlines the respective responsibilities of parents and children during feeding.
About the Institute:
At the Ellyn Satter Institute, we are dedicated to transforming lives by helping individuals and families develop a positive and joyful relationship with food. Rooted in the pioneering work of dietitian, family therapist and eating and feeding expert, Ellyn Satter, our approach fosters physical, emotional, and social well-being through Satter’s proven methods.
About Ellen Satter:
Ellyn Satter is an internationally recognized authority on eating and feeding. She is a nutritionist, family therapist, author, trainer, publisher, and consultant. During her over 40-year clinical career, she worked first as a registered dietitian in an outpatient medical practice, then as a psychotherapist in private practice specializing in family-based treatment of eating disorders. She began her writing and speaking career in 1983 with the publication of Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense.
Satter’s work is transformative in the lives of individuals, families and professionals who support others with eating and feeding.
And here are the recommendations:
Children have natural ability with eating. They eat as much as they need, they grow in the way that is right for them, and they learn to eat the food their parents eat. Step-by-step, throughout their growing-up years, they build on their natural ability and become eating competent. Parents let them learn and grow with eating when they follow the Division of Responsibility in Feeding.
The Division of Responsibility for infants:
- The parent is responsible for what.
- The child is responsible for how much (and everything else).
Parents choose breast- or formula-feeding, and help the infant be calm and organized. Then they feed smoothly, paying attention to information coming from the baby about timing, tempo, frequency, and amounts.
The Division of Responsibility for babies making the transition to family food:
- The parent is still responsible for what, and is becoming responsible for when and where the child is fed.
- The child is still and always responsible for how much and whether to eat the foods offered by the parent.
Based on what the child can do, not on how old s/he is, parents guide the child’s transition from nipple feeding through semisolids, then thick-and-lumpy food, to finger food at family meals.
The Division of Responsibility for toddlers through adolescents:
- The parent is responsible for what, when, where.
- The child is responsible for how much and whether.
Fundamental to parents’ jobs is trusting children to determine how much and whether to eat from what parents provide. When parents do their jobs with feeding, children do their jobs with eating:
Parents’ feeding jobs:
- Choose and prepare the food.
- Provide regular meals and snacks.
- Make eating times pleasant.
- Step-by-step, show children by example how to behave at family mealtime.
- Be considerate of children’s lack of food experience without catering to likes and dislikes.
- Not let children have food or beverages (except for water) between meal and snack times.
- Let children grow up to get bodies that are right for them.
Children’s eating jobs:
- Children will eat.
- They will eat the amount they need.
- Ще се научат да ядат храната, която ядат и техните родители.
- They will grow predictably.
- They will learn to behave well at mealtime
Read the original for the most accurate information:
from the Ellyn Satter Institute (ellynsatterinstitute.org)
* Most of these materials are sourced from original English-language sources. The translations were created with the help of Google Translate and ChatGPT. For the most complete and accurate information, please always refer to and verify the original source first.
Check the latest information on the topic yourself
Cited Sources
- Ellyn Satter’s Division of Responsibility in Feeding ellynsatterinstitute.org
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