Shaping the future health of babies To ensure future mailings from SMA® Professional reach your mailbox, add smaprofessional@smaprofessional.msgfocus.com to your safe sender list. Email not displaying properly? Click here to view in browser     Dear Healthcare Professional, Welcome to the March edition of our eNewsletter, aimed to keep you updated with the latest news in infant nutrition. This month we’ll be focusing on the benefits of a responsive parenting approach on child development, with a specific focus on the impact of responsive feeding on a baby’s long-term health and eating behaviours. Kind regards, The SMA® Professional Team     How much of a role does responsive parenting play in a child’s future?     Responsive parenting is a broad framework that refers to interactions between a child and caregiver in which the caregiver responds appropriately and consistently to the child’s emotional and physical needs Responsive parenting is often conceptualised as a three-step process1 Observation: The caregiver observes the child’s cues, such as movements, facial expressions and vocalisations. Interpretation: The caregiver accurately interprets these signals, e.g. realising that an irritable infant is tired and needs rest, or is showing signs of illness. Action: The caregiver acts swiftly, consistently and efficiently to meet the child’s needs. Evidence suggests that caregiver responsiveness has wide-ranging benefits on child development, including language acquisition, cognition and psychosocial development. Maternal responsiveness in early childhood has been linked to fewer behaviour problems at age three2, and beyond3.       Responsive feeding and how it can help shape a baby’s future     An ongoing randomised clinical trial comparing a responsive parenting intervention to a safety control showed that a responsive parenting intervention may result in reduced weight for length and overweight status at 1 year, and therefore may reduce later risk of being overweight4. Responsive feeding, a derivative of responsive parenting, refers to the relationship between infant and caregiver to communicate feelings of hunger and satiety through behavioural cues, followed by a correct interpretation of those cues and a response from the caregiver5. Responsive feeding allows an infant to feed according to their own appetite and physiological needs and can protect against overfeeding and associated long-term outcomes.       Expert Opinion: Responsive feeding strategies to promote healthy mealtime interactions   Patterns of growth and feeding are established in early life and common feeding problems, including food responsiveness, can result in long-term weight, nutrition or behavioural problems. Food responsiveness is the urge to eat when you see, smell or taste palatable food with the lack of internal cues for hunger. Professor Maureen Black provides an overview of eating development milestones, discusses global approaches to responsive feeding and strategies to promote healthy mealtime interactions.         ® Registered Trademark. IMPORTANT NOTICE: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended that pregnant women and new mothers be informed on the benefits and superiority of breastfeeding – in particular the fact that it provides the best nutrition and protection from illness for babies. Mothers should be given guidance on the preparation for, and maintenance of, lactation, with special emphasis on the importance of a well-balanced diet both during pregnancy and after delivery. Unnecessary introduction of partial bottle-feeding or other foods and drinks should be discouraged since it will have a negative effect on breastfeeding. Similarly, mothers should be warned of the difficulty of reversing a decision not to breastfeed. Before advising a mother to use an infant formula, she should be advised of the social and financial implications of her decision: for example, if a baby is exclusively bottle-fed, more than one can (400 g) per week will be needed, so the family circumstances and costs should be kept in mind. Mothers should be reminded that breast milk is not only the best, but also the most economical food for babies. If a decision to use an infant formula is taken, it is important to give instructions on correct preparation methods, emphasising that unboiled water, unsterilised bottles or incorrect dilution can all lead to illness. References: 1. Eshel, N. et al. (2006). Responsive parenting: interventions and outcomes. Bull World Health Organisation, 84 (12), 991-998.2. Bakeman R, Brown JV. Early interaction: consequences for social and mental development at three years. Child Dev 1980; 51:437-47. 3. Beckwith L, Rodning C, Cohen S. Preterm children at early adolescence and continuity and discontinuity in maternal responsiveness from infancy. Child Dev 1992;63:1198-208. 4. Savage, J. et al. (2016). Effect of the INSIGHT responsive parenting intervention on rapid infant weight gain and overweight status at age 1 year. JAMA Pediatr, 170(8), 742 – 749 5. Black M and Aboud FE. 2011. Responsive Feeding Is Embedded in a Theoretical Framework of Responsive Parenting. J Nutr. 141, 490–494.     To ensure future mailings from SMA® Professional reach your mailbox, add smaprofessional@smaprofessional.msgfocus.com to your safe sender list. Contact SMA® Nutrition | Terms & conditions This email is intended for residents of the ROI Unsubscribe   ZTC2985a/03/18