Infant agency in feeding interactions: Exploring positive eating strategies in ECEC settings

This research aimed to explore how positive eating experiences can be supported in ECEC for infants in order to create early healthy relationships with food, preventing later problematic eating issues in adulthood. The importance of infant-led feeding (Brown & Arnott, 2014) and infant development of taste, including acknowledging their communication of pleasurable eating experiences (Wiggins & Keevallik, 2020) have been explored, with the latter using an ethnomethodological conversation analysis (EMCA) research approach. An ethnomethodological framing (Goffman, 1981) was used to explore the everyday co-construction of interactions around teacher and infant food and feeding actives. Shaped by an ethnomethodological paradigm, video data of teacher-infant feeding interactions were collected and transcribed and analysed using a conversation analysis approach (Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson, 1973). Ethical approval was gained through the Swansea University Ethics Committee, including infant assent and dissent participation processes. The findings are twofold: 1) in practical terms, real-life examples of teacher strategies for facilitating positive eating experiences are discussed and 2) the usefulness of an EMCA approach for revealing infant agency and participation in the feeding activity is shown The findings have implications for ECE practice as the EMCA approach offers insight into specific strategies for early childhood teacher/practitioners to respond to infants in ways that support positive interactions with food and feeding.