. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Oct 13.

Published in final edited form as: J Child Health Care. 2018 Aug 2;23(2):286–310. doi: 10.1177/1367493518788466

Table 2.

Parental feeding styles.

Style	Definition
Indulgent	The parent sets no limits on the quantity or quality of the food consumed by the child.
Laissez-faire	The parent does not place limits on the quality or quantity of the child’s diet and there is little interaction between parent and child during feeding.
Pressuring/controlling	The parent is concerned regarding increases in the amount of food that is taken by the child, demonstrating practices such as adding cereal to a bottle to help with sleep and using food to soothe.
Responsive	The parent provides structure yet is attentive to the hunger and satiety cues the child exhibits, the quality of the food is also monitored.
Restrictive	The parent is concerned regarding decreasing the amount of food that is taken by the child, and food may be limited to healthful options and quantities.