This is en experience report lived in the Health and Nursing Assistance Projects of the Post-Graduate Nursing Master Degree of the Federal University of Santa Catarina as an interdisciplinary subject, and it was done with Down's Syndrome people, concentrating in their rationality and imaginary. We tried to build with these people and their families an individualized nutritional systematization that contributes to their personal independence in the daily practice of the act of eating. The postulates of symbolic interactionism guided this practice and established a connection with the methodological instruments of sensible listening and observation, besides playful activities. It was evident that the first meaning of the act of eating is built in the family and reinforced in the social life.
Qualitative research; Down Syndrome; Feeding behavior