Feeding babies and children

What children consume in their early years – breast or formula milk, organic or ‘junk’ food – is often a topic of heated public debate. Childhood eating has become powerfully linked in the social and political imagination to wider problems such as obesity, cancers and even intellectual development and emotional health. Such problems are now routinely described in catastrophic terms. These days, questioning the validity of crusades to shake up apparently complacent adults and compel them to change the dietary habits of the young, risks widespread opprobrium.

It was this aspect of parenting culture that gave rise to the idea being the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies in the first place  The event ‘Feeding babies and Parenting Culture’ was held at the University of Kent in May 2023, marking 20 years since our initial research on this topic. Watch recordings from the day here.

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