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Feeding behaviour in the weaning period
1University of Durham, UK. Kathryn.Parkinson@ncl.ac.uk
Insights
This study developed a reliable coding system to observe infant feeding behaviors during weaning. Mothers feeding infants resulted in greater intake, while longer meals correlated with lower intake per bite.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nutrition
- Developmental Psychology
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Understanding infant feeding behaviors during the weaning period is crucial for both theoretical and practical reasons.
- Existing methods for describing feeding interactions may lack the specificity needed to analyze nuanced behaviors and their impact on intake.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a reliable observational coding system for infant feeding behavior.
- To investigate the relationships between specific feeding behaviors (mother-led vs. self-feeding), meal duration, and actual food intake in 12-14 month old children.
Main Methods:
- A home-based observational study involving 100 children aged 12-14 months.
- Video recording and direct observation of two meals per child, using a newly developed coding scheme for feeding acts.
- Inter-observer reliability testing on 40 randomly selected meals, demonstrating high reliability (p > .80) for most codes.
Main Results:
- A reliable coding scheme was established, differentiating mother-feeding, assisted self-feeding, and self-feeding behaviors.
- Significant variation in self-feeding extent and moderate meal-to-meal consistency were observed among children.
- Food intake correlated with the number of bites, not meal duration; longer meals with adjusted bites showed lower intake.
- Infants consumed more food when fed by the mother compared to self-feeding, with minimal impact on meal duration.
Conclusions:
- The developed coding scheme is simple, reliable, and effective for analyzing infant feeding behaviors.
- Findings highlight the differential impact of feeding method and meal duration on infant food intake.
- This tool can link specific feeding behaviors and mealtime characteristics to nutritional outcomes.
Abstract:
Feeding behaviour in the weaning period is important theoretically and practically. The aim of the study was to develop appropriate observational codes for its description, to assess their reliability, and to examine the relationships between feeding behaviour, meal duration, and food intake. One hundred children aged 12-14 months were visited in their own homes, and two of each child's usual meals video-recorded and analysed using direct observation. Codes were developed that distinguished between the mother feeding her child directly and assisting her child's self-feeding, and between the child's behaviour when responding to being fed by the mother and when feeding themselves. All-occurrence sampling was used to record counts of these feeding acts during the meals. Two observers replicated coding of 40 randomly chosen meals to determine the reliability of these counts. Except for three codes which were used very infrequently (median counts of zero over the 200 meals), reliability was high with p > .80. There was wide variation in the extent to which individual children fed themselves during meals, with only moderate consistency from meal to meal. Food intake was uncorrelated with meal duration, but correlated with the number of bites of food taken. Adjusted for the number of bites, longer meals were associated with a lower intake. When fed by the mother the child's food intake was greater than when they fed themselves, but the duration of the meals was little affected. The coding scheme is simple to use and generally reliable, and provides a means for relating more global measures of emotional or other characteristics of mealtime behaviour to feeding behaviour and nutritional intake.
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