Research & Practice
Family Feeding Dynamics: Using Ellyn Satter’s Models to Address Adolescent Weight-Based Concerns
Current medical training may not adequately address the need for weight-neutral care and healthy development of eating skills and body image in children and adolescents. In addition, medical students receive very limited training in nutrition with only 19.6 contact hours over the course of 4 years of medical school. As a result, many residents may not be properly prepared to provide advice to patients related to nutrition and family feeding dynamics that may prevent development of eating disorder behaviors in adolescent patients and families.
Medical decisions based solely on weight fail to account for patient mental health status, relationships with food, and potentially unhealthy behaviors around food and exercise. This project aims to provide training to medical residents on alternative approaches to common weight-based concerns that may arise in their adolescent patient populations. The student utilized Ellyn Satter’s eating and feeding models and her work in developing parent-child feeding relationships to support healthy eating behaviors as a framework for the case-based training session. This training is a recorded video training that introduces pediatric residents to Ellyn Satter’s work and explains how they can utilize her models to inform evidence-based recommendations to families that help improve family feeding dynamics, prevent the development of disorder eating behaviors, and ultimately help their adolescent patients grow to have a healthier relationship with food and their bodies. After conducting a literature review to assess and support the need for this training, a training outline, script, and slides were developed. These documents went through multiple rounds of feedback with current practicing dietitians, medical providers, and experts on Ellyn Satter’s models. Additionally, the student was able to practice giving the training to a live audience of current providers and received feedback through that avenue as well, resulting in final edits and a training recording.
This project’s final deliverable is a ~20 minute recorded training video provided with a list of additional resources for the viewers to utilize if they are interested in learning more. The training will be included in the Resident and Medical Student Learning Curriculum that is managed by the Seattle Children’s Adolescent Medicine Clinic. This curriculum is required for all residents and medical students that interact or complete rotation hours with the Adolescent Medicine Department.
Proposed next steps for the Adolescent Medicine Department include continuing to provide this training to residents and update it as new research becomes available. They may also consider adding other components to the training like a discussion guide if an in-person aspect of this training is desired. Lastly, the department can use the pre- and post-test questions that are included in the video to help inform whether they need or want to include additional resources on this topic in their training curriculum.
Materials Available
Project Type(s): MPH Practicum, PH Concentration Poster
Author(s): Olivia Ramoino
Program(s): Master of Public Health, RDN Training
Year: 2022
Adviser(s):