Dr. Hazel Wolstenholme

Sprout's lead child feeding psychologist

Qualifications

Hazel has an honours BA Degree and a Doctorate (PhD) from the School of Psychology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Her degree gave her a foundation in general psychology, with a focus on child development and health psychology. Following this, she was awarded a scholarship to do a PhD in the School of Psychology at NUI Galway. She spent the 4 years of her PhD studying and researching child feeding and children’s eating behaviours. Specifically, she investigated parents’ and children’s beliefs, goals, strategies and experiences in relation to coping with, and overcoming, fussy eating challenges. 

Training in Feeding Support

In addition to 4 years of PhD research, Hazel has completed training in diverse approaches to assessing and managing feeding challenges. She is trained in the SOS (Sequential-Oral-Sensory) approach to managing problem feeding, developed by Dr Kay Toomey. SOS is an internationally recognised clinical programme which focuses on children’s sensory processing and oral-motor challenges as well as psychological aspects of feeding. She has training in behavioural approaches to helping children with feeding challenges. This approach is about understanding the reason behind a child’s eating behaviours and how these behaviours may be reinforced by parents’ responses and other influences in the environment. She has completed 6 months of intensive clinical and theoretical training in EAF (Emotionally Aware Feeding), a responsive feeding approach. EAF focuses on the psychological aspects of feeding and the parent-child feeding relationship. It is about lowering mealtime anxiety, fostering children’s internal drives to eat and supporting children’s autonomy. EAF helps parents to feel confident about feeding, supporting children to develop confidence in their eating. 

Research and Teaching

Hazel actively contributes to research in the area of child feeding and share research findings nationally and internationally. She has also tutored and lectured developmental psychology at the National University of Ireland, Galway for three years. Some of her recent publications and conference presentations include: 

  • Wolstenholme, H., Heary, C., & Kelly, C. (2019). Fussy eating behaviours: Response patterns in families of school-aged children. Appetite, 136, 93-102.
  • Wolstenholme, H., Kelly, C., & Heary, C. (2019, March). “It’s like I’m eating brains”: Children’s perceptions and experiences of fussy eating behaviour. Oral presentation presented at the International Conference on Children’s Eating Behaviour, Birmingham, UK.
  • Wolstenholme, H., Heary, C., & Kelly, C. (2018, August). The family response to fussy eating in school-aged children: A qualitative study. Oral presentation presented at the European Health Psychology Society Conference, Galway, Ireland.
  • Wolstenholme, H., Heary, C., & Kelly, C. (2017, September). Fussy eating in school-aged children: A mixed method study. Oral presentation presented at the European Health Psychology Society Conference, Padua, Italy.

 

Hazel is a member of the Psychological Society of Ireland and follows their code of ethical practice.