Kirsten Marquis March 26, 2013 Division of Responsibility When feeding a child, a diverse slew of guidelines, whether from

outside sources or your own personal experiences, can confuse you as to how best help your child grow and develop properly. The worries that your child might be over or underweight only add to the confusion and might bring you to take drastic measures to help your child reach their proper weight. According to Ellyn Satter, children know how much they need to eat. For the most part, a child will eat when they are hungry and stop eating when they are full. Overeating and under-eating can be parent-made habits from poor feeding techniques. For example, if you are worried your child is overweight and therefore restrict their consumption of foods high in fat or sugar, when the child gets the chance to eat those delicacies he will want to eat as much as he can. Similarly, if a smaller child is forced to finish a meal or eat certain foods, later on they are likely to consume less when they are given that choice. In order to prevent such problems that can last throughout a childs life, Satter recommends the Division of Responsibility. The division of responsibility is exactly that, dividing the feeding responsibilities between parent and child. The parent is responsible to provide the food, choose which foods are provided, and decide when and where to have sit-down meals and snacks. The parent must leave the responsibility of how much food to eat and the choice of what foods to eat to the child. As the parent consistently keeps their responsibilities and allows the child to make their own choices, the child will learn to eat properly and is much more likely to grow normally.

Case-scenario Application: [Scenario 2] According to the scenario, Sally tends to constantly want food and will do anything she can to get food. One of the issues leading to this behavior is that her parents only give her one helping at mealtimes and no snacks. Satter clearly explains the danger in limiting a childs food. When their food is limited, they tend to overeat when they are given that opportunity. This could explain why Sally stays near the readily-available food at parties. As parents are responsible for determining when to eat, Satter recommends sit-down snacks between meals rather than forbidding snacks. Snacks can curb hunger in a child and make them less likely to overeat during meals. Forbidding or limiting food leads to over-eating problems, therefore the responsibilities of how much food and choice of food (out of what is provided) need to be left to Sally. When in public, if the parents are embarrassed enough to give in to Sallys tantrums for more food, Sally learns that her parents will give in to the tantrums. Satters division of responsibility can also help to change Sallys mealtime behaviors. When Sally is given the responsibility of choosing what to eat (out of the foods provided at meals) and how much to eat, she wont have to persuade her parents to give her more. The division of responsibility in this scenario can help with Sallys eating behaviors. Personal Experience My own mother is a good example of the division of responsibility. Throughout my childhood we ate dinner together as a family every weeknight. She consistently met the parents responsibility of what, where, and when. First, my mom provided a variety of food choices at dinner time. Every dinner included the main course, a vegetable, and if she knew we didnt like that food she would make us a grilled cheese to go alongside the dinner. (There was also

always a vegan option as my dad is a vegan). She also cooked what she called, The Featured Vegetable, at least once a week to give the opportunity to each of us to try a new vegetable. It was a fun, exciting way to get us to eat vegetables. My mom was really good at covering the what aspect of the division of responsibility. Apart from dinner, my mom left most of the when aspect to us. We were responsible for our own breakfasts, we got to eat school lunch, and we were allowed to snack on whatever we wanted as long as it wasnt in the hour before dinner time. In fact, for as long as I remember there have always been candy dishes throughout our house. For this reason, Ive never felt the need to consume large amounts of treats/dessert because I knew I could have it whenever I want. And for the where aspect, she also left most of the responsibility to us, until it came to dinner time. We were always expected to be at the dinner table at 6pm and not allowed to snack after 5pm. My mom left the responsibilities of how much food to eat and what we choose to eat to us, she did a good job of keeping the responsibilities divided.

This paper represents my own written work. (Kirsten Marquis).

Section V. Feeding Paper Grading Rubric 1. Content (17 pts.)

Were the different responsibilities of the parent and the child clearly stated in the students own words? Outstanding/ Definitely (4 Mostly (3 Somewhat (2 Not Really (1 Not at All (0 pts.) pts.) pts.) pt.) pts.)
a.

Did the student provide enough details or explanation for the target audience to understand the division? Outstanding/ Definitely (4 Mostly (3 Somewhat (2 Not Really (1 Not at All (0 pts.) pts.) pts.) pt.) pts.)
b.

Did the student identify which characteristics of Satters Division were or were not present in the scenario? Were the students recommendations consistent with Satters? [There is no need to restate the scenario.] Outstanding/ Definitely (4 Mostly (3 Somewhat (2 Not Really (1 Not at All (0 pts.) pts.) pts.) pt.) pts.)
c.

Did the student describe at least one relevant personal experience or observation to demonstrate understanding of the characteristics of the Division of Responsibility? Outstanding/ Definitely (4 Mostly (3 Somewhat (2 Not Really (1 Not at All (0 pts.) pts.) pts.) pt.) pts.)
d.

2. Clear Expression of Ideas (8 pts.)

Is the paper convincing? Is it concise? [It should not have formal Introduction or Conclusion paragraphs.] Definitely (4 pts.) Mostly (3 pts.) Somewhat (2 pts.) Not Really (1 pt.) Not at All (0 pts.)
a.

Is there a logical progression of ideas? Clear organization with smooth transitions? Is it polished? Definitely (4 pts.) Mostly (3 pts.) Somewhat (2 pts.) Not Really (1 pt.) Not at All (0 pts.)
b.

3. Mechanics (10 pts.) (1 free grammar or spelling error)

Did the student include name and headings for each section? Is the paper the correct length not less than 1.5 pages nor more than 2.5 pages? Was it saved and submitted correctly? Definitely (4 pts.) Mostly (3 pts.) Somewhat (2 pts.) Not Really (1 pt.) Not at All (0 pts.)
a.

Do direct quotes only make up a small portion of the paper? Is the paper free of misspelled words? Are plurals and possessives used correctly? Is it grammatically correct? Is there agreement between pronoun and antecedent? Does the paper have consistent voice throughout? Definitely (4 pts.) Mostly (3 pts.) Somewhat (2 pts.) Not Really (1 pt.) Not at All (0 pts.)
b. c.

Did the student include the grading rubric with the assignment? Yes (1 pt.) No (0 pts.)

d.

Did the student type the statement, This paper represents my own written work? Yes (1 pt.) No (0 pts.)