Development of a live coding method to assess infant/toddler food acceptance

Area of Science:

• Nutrition science
• Behavioral science
• Public health

Background:

• Effective nutritional interventions require validated measures of infant food acceptance.
• Current behavioral coding methods (video coding - VC) are time and resource-intensive.
• Assessing infant acceptance is crucial for improving undernutrition outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To adapt a video coding (VC) protocol into a live coding (LC) method for assessing infant food acceptance.
• To evaluate the reliability and validity of the LC method in naturalistic settings.
• To provide a feasible alternative to VC for infant feeding studies.

Main Methods:

• Infants (n=59, ages 7-24 months) were fed small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) in Mexico.
• Trained coders used a VC scheme to rate infant acceptance on a 4-point scale.
• The VC scheme was adapted for live coding (LC) in homes and video live coding (VLC) for reliability checks.

Main Results:

• Inter-rater reliability for the LC method was moderate to good (ICCs = 0.75 and 0.87) compared to VC.
• Live coded acceptance scores showed a moderate association with SQ-LNS consumption (ρ = 0.50, p = 0.03).
• The LC method demonstrated initial reliability and validity.

Conclusions:

• The live coding (LC) scheme is a reliable and valid method for assessing infant food acceptance.
• LC offers a practical and less resource-intensive alternative to video coding (VC).
• This method can be valuable for nutritional interventions in resource-limited settings.