The CAP candidate, Dr. Kathleen A. Burklow, is entering her third year in an assistant professor faculty position. This award is expected to help her develop the skills necessary to develop clinical trials of behaviorally-based feeding interventions using randomized controlled designs that focus on prevention and treatment of feeding problems and the associated physical and psychological morbidity in preterm infants. Specific objectives of the award are to: 1) broaden the understanding of the impact of physiological, developmental, medical, and parent-child interaction factors; and 2) design empirically-based assessment methodologies to quantify clinical data to facilitate the development of behaviorally-based, family-sensitive interventions to treat and/or prevent feeding problems in preterm children. The candidate proposes a five-year training program with mentors from a strong pediatric research department. Her primary mentor is a very experienced pediatric psychology researcher whose work has focused on the implementation of behaviorally-based nutrition interventions designed to improve weight gain in children with cystic fibrosis. Co-mentors represent subspecialty divisions that are directly relevant to the research and career development plan. The career development plan describes activities focused on enhancing scientific knowledge of research-related approaches to the treatment of feeding problems in the preterm population. These activities will include course work, independent studies, and guided clinical observations. Other activities in the plan include training in the responsible conduct of research and mentored experiences with preparation of grant proposals for independent research support. The candidate's proposed research involves two projects. Study 1 is an assessment study comparing child behaviors and care giver-child feeding interactions of preterm infants and healthy controls at two pivotal developmental stages (introduction to solid feeding and acquisition of self- feeding). Study 2 is a pilot study designed to evaluate the efficacy of a behaviorally-based feeding intervention intended to teach care givers how to manage feeding problems in toddlers with histories of prematurity.
