<b>Maternal and child behavior while feeding: an observation study</b> - DOI: 10.4025/cienccuidsaude.v8i3.9023

Abstract

The international literature has indicated that maternal behaviors and mother/child interactions during feeding may play an important role in determining nutritional status and food consumption by children. This study aimed at initiating such topic in our milieu by describing maternal and child behaviors during a meal (lunch) as shown by mother/child dyads in poverty conditions. It is a cross-sectional descriptive study. Its data were obtained by observing 16 mother/child dyads (children aged 12 to 24 months) who were selected from basic health care units and formed an intentional sample. An inventory containing 60 items (behavior or interactive sequences) was designed to guide the observations performed at the participants’ homes by two trained observers. Behaviors characteristic of three feeding styles were observed in the mothers: not asking the children about what they wanted to eat, which is typical of the authoritarian style; alternation of active feeding and the children’s eating by themselves, according to their own initiative, which is typical of the responsive style, and, in face of the child’s refusing to eat, various mothers adopted monotonous insistence or stopped feeding, which is typical of the passive style. It was concluded that maternal behaviors which are potentially adverse to the child’s nutritional status were detected, thus justifying population studies with the purpose to evaluate their possible association with malnutrition or low appetite.