DIPA’s finalist : learn more about Julie Lumeng
Prof. Julie Lumeng is one of the finalist of the 3rd edition of the Danone International Prize for Alimentation for her projet : Understanding the mother-child feeding interaction
The research program of Julie LUMENG’s team strives to understand the mother-child feeding interaction, in order to better understand how to best support women and children.
Developing effective strategies to best support the feeding interaction requires a transdisciplinary approach and an appreciation for the myriad influences on this interaction.
These influences extend across:
- Social contexts–from the mother-child interaction, to the family system, to the community and society,
- Biology and behavior–both nature and nurture,
- Time and development, to include prenatal contributors to appetite in the child, as well as the mother’s experiences of eating and feeding beginning in her own childhood,
- Emotion, cognition, taste, and satiety–in both the mother and the child.
Understanding alimentation must also extend across a diversity of people, cultures, and societies.
It is often said that one cannot be a firm advocate for children without also being a firm advocate for women, because around the world, the well-being of children is closely tied to the well-being of women. In order to best support children, women, and families, we need to better understand the maternal biology underlying maternal feeding behaviors.
