The Montreal Children's Hospital Feeding Scale: A brief bilingual screening tool for identifying feeding problems

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Health
• Psychometrics
• Child Development

Background:

• Feeding problems affect a significant number of children.
• Early identification and intervention are crucial for optimal child development.
• Existing screening tools may lack brevity or specific psychometric validation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Montreal Children's Hospital Feeding Scale (MCH-Feeding Scale).
• To establish the validity and reliability of this brief, bilingual, 14-item parent-report tool.
• To determine its utility in identifying feeding problems in children aged six months to six years.

Main Methods:

• Construct validity was assessed using a normative sample (198 mothers) and a clinical sample (174 mothers).
• Test-retest reliability was examined by re-administering the MCH-Feeding Scale to 25 children in each sample.
• Data were collected from mothers of children attending community pediatrician offices and a feeding clinic.

Main Results:

• The MCH-Feeding Scale demonstrated excellent construct validity, with significant differences between normative and clinical samples (P<0.01).
• High test-retest reliability was confirmed in both normative (r=0.845) and clinical (r=0.92) samples.
• Mean scores differed substantially: 32.65±12.73 for the normative group and 60.48±13.04 for the clinical group.

Conclusions:

• The MCH-Feeding Scale is a psychometrically sound tool for identifying pediatric feeding issues.
• Its brevity and bilingual nature make it practical for widespread clinical use.
• Pediatricians and healthcare professionals can utilize the MCH-Feeding Scale for efficient screening of feeding problems.