Frances E. Aboud|Sohana Shafique|Sadika Akhter
A Responsive Feeding Intervention Increases Children’s Self-Feeding and Maternal Responsiveness but Not Weight Gain ,
McGill University|International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research
responsive complementary feeding whereby mother feeds child response child cues psychomotor abilities low countries likely contributes malnutrition interventions needed evaluate whether promoting responsive feeding would add benefit using clusterrandomized field trial evaluated 6session educational program emphasized practice child selffeeding maternal responsiveness total 108 mothers 8 20moold children 19 clusters randomly assigned intervention group 95 18 clusters assigned informational control group outcomes assessed pretest postintervention followup research assistants unaware group assignment observed coded mother child midday meal behaviors followup percent selffed mouthfuls 478 424 mean sd responsive feeding group children compared 322 410 controls p 001 likewise number responsive verbalizations 655 59 responsive feeding mothers 462 45 controls p 001 intervention mothers recalled messages mouthfuls food eaten children weight equivalent 2 groups lack change foods eaten small quantities may explain similarly low levels weight gain results provide evidence selffeeding maternal verbal responsiveness two developmentally important behaviors increased targeting specific behaviors appropriate behavior change strategies modeling coached practice weight gain may require nutritional input especially areas high food insecurity