Meet the team

We created the Child Feeding Guide to share effective, credible information to promote healthy, happy mealtimes for children.

Emma, Gemma and Claire are academic psychologists from Loughborough and Aston Universities in the UK. They conduct research into ways to help children to eat more healthily and caregiver-child interactions around food and mealtimes.

Keen to share the findings from their own and others' research, they developed the Child Feeding Guide website and app. Since its launch, the Child Feeding Guide has been used by over 150,000 individuals. It is endorsed by a wide range of groups and charities, including the NHS. The team run training sessions for parents and professionals. More recently, they have established two online training courses; one for health professionals and one for childcare professionals.

Emma, Gemma and Claire are active researchers and so the information contained within the Child Feeding Guide is based on current evidence and recommendations. They regularly publish research papers, present at conferences, and share their findings in the media.

Prof Emma Haycraft

Professor of Psychology and Public Health at Loughborough University

Emma has expertise in caregiver-child interactions, particularly in the context of feeding, eating and mealtimes. She has been conducting research in this area since 2003 and has led a variety of research studies which have contributed to the information contained within the Child Feeding Guide. She is committed to conducting research which helps to bring about health behaviour change and to working with families and professionals who will benefit from the findings of her research.

Dr Gemma Witcomb

Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Loughborough University

Gemma's research career began in the field of adult eating behaviour over 15 years ago. She has worked with both clinical (eating disordered) and non-clinical populations and is involved in research spanning from infants to adults, including supervising PhD projects in these areas. Her interest in child eating behaviour and parental feeding practices grew out of her own experiences feeding her children. With a background in usability and design of web applications, she is particularly interested in using technology to provide information, support, and training in this area. Gemma also works in other fields in clinical and health psychology.

Prof Claire Farrow

Professor in Child Eating Behaviour at Aston University

Claire has been conducting research about child eating behaviour since 2001 and has overseen several research studies with families and children exploring the factors that can help or exacerbate feeding difficulties. She has published over 70 papers or book chapters in the field of eating behaviour and it is the evidence from this research that inspired her to develop the Child Feeding Guide with Emma and Gemma. Claire is mum to 2 children, both of whom have been described as “fussy” at some stage!