{"id":733,"date":"2010-12-08T16:22:45","date_gmt":"2010-12-08T16:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/?page_id=733"},"modified":"2025-09-15T11:39:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T10:39:18","slug":"feeding-children","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/pcs-events\/previous-events\/feeding-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Feeding children in the new parenting culture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This event, which received funding from the <em>Foundation for the\u00a0Sociology of Health and Illness<\/em>, was held on Monday 21 March 2011 at the British Library Conference Centre.<\/p>\n<p>What children consume in their early years \u2013 breast or formula milk, organic or \u2018junk\u2019 food \u2013 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.<\/p>\n<p>This event aimed to document and critically assess this increased attention to infant and childhood eating, by looking at the effect this has had on parents themselves. Discussions explored the kinds of claims made by various interested parties about feeding children, and focussed on how the moralization of this area of life impacts on parental experience and identity.<\/p>\n<p>The day featured a lecture by <a href=\"http:\/\/wgst.tamu.edu\/faculty\/wolf.html\">Dr. Joan Wolf<\/a>, of Texas A&amp;M University, author of <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Breast-Best-Breastfeeding-Technoscience-Twenty-first\/dp\/0814794815\">Is Breast Best? Taking on the Breastfeeding Experts and the New High Stakes of Motherhood<\/a> <\/em>(New York and London: NYU Press). Discussants joining Professor Wolf included Professor Elizabeth Murphy (Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Social Science, University of Leicester),\u00a0Dr Mary Fewtrell (Reader in Childhood Nutrition, Honorary Consultant Paediatrician, Institute of Child Health, UCL) and\u00a0Zoe Williams (Columnist,\u00a0<em>The Guardian<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p>There were also sessions on \u2018Feeding children in the \u2018obesity crisis\u2019\u2019 &#8211; looking at the cultural meaning of \u2018obesity epidemic\u2019, and how this idea impacts on parent-child relations &#8211; and \u2018Food, motherhood and meaning\u2019, exploring the way women internalise and struggle with ideas about what it means to be a \u2018good mother\u2019 when it comes to feeding children. One of the papers in this session addressed current debates around weaning infants onto solid food, and some of the implications of \u2018baby-led weaning\u2019 for mothers.<\/p>\n<p>Follow the links below for further information about the presentations, including audio recordings and powerpoint slides.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/files\/2010\/12\/Feeding-children-timetable1.pdf\">Programme<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"abstracts-and-papers\/\">Abstracts and papers<\/a> (including audio\/PPT slides)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This event, which received funding from the Foundation for the\u00a0Sociology of Health and Illness, was held on Monday 21 March 2011 at the British Library Conference Centre. What children consume in their early years \u2013 breast or formula milk, organic or \u2018junk\u2019 food \u2013 is often a topic of heated public debate. Childhood eating has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":503,"featured_media":0,"parent":608,"menu_order":60,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/503"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4552,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/733\/revisions\/4552"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}