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Home › Articles › Toddler Nutrition › Controlled Infant Feeding and the Obesity Link

Controlled Infant Feeding and the Obesity Link

Should Parents Restrict How Much Their Baby Eats?

By Lisa A. Goldstein

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The emerging consensus among experts is that there is a division of responsibility in terms of feeding young children, Dr. Vazzana says. It posits that the parent is responsible for the what, where and when of feeding, and that the child is responsible for whether to eat (at a given time) and how much to eat.

An important exception should be noted. Although this division of responsibility applies once a child becomes a toddler, it doesn't hold true for infants, Dr. Vazzana says. "During infancy, the parent's task is merely determining what the child eats (i.e. breastmilk, formula, or eventually, solid food)," she says. "At this developmental stage, it is the infant who should determine where, when and how much to eat. Parents should attend to their infant's cues that they are hungry and then feed on demand." Parents shouldn't force-feed just because they think their child hasn't eaten enough. Healthy infants are actually excellent at self-regulation when it comes to eating.

Rather than restricting food for young children, Dr. Vazzana says that parents should be encouraging their young children to eat a wide variety of foods so that they get all the nutrients they need. Up until about 21 months of age, children are quite likely to accept whatever foods they are given, so it's a great opportunity to introduce a broad range of foods.

As children become toddlers and begin to discover and request less healthy foods, Dr. Vazzana says, parents can monitor and limit their children's intake of unhealthy food, rather than restricting them altogether. "One way they might do this is by having a rather monotonous selection of the unhealthy food – for example, if the child requests cookies, have only one kind available – while continuing to provide a wide array of healthy, palatable alternatives," Dr. Vazzana says. "After a while, they are likely to become bored with the cookie and choose the other option."


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