Infants and their caregivers’ earliest interactions take place during feeding routines. As caregivers notice and respond to an infant’s cues, they meet their baby’s nutritional needs while communicating and comforting them. Responding to a child’s hunger and fullness cues helps babies grow at a healthy pace while developing a strong attachment to her caregivers, but these cues are not always easy to spot, especially for first time mothers! The LEIFC project is a responsive feeding intervention that helps mothers who are experiencing poverty learn to notice and respond to these early cues to help her child reach a healthy weight and to develop strong early communication skills. The LEIFC project is a collaboration between the College of Nursing, CECRAP and the Center for Prevention and Early Intervention at FSU. This fall, families in Gadsden county’s Early Head Start home visiting program will participate in the project with their trained home visitors who will coach them to respond to their baby’s earliest feeding cues. We are excited to partner to support our tiniest community members!

For more information on the LEIFC project, please visit the project website.