Conclusion
Our findings provide insights into mother-child interaction during the
complementary feeding as well as the common constraints that make it
difficult to adopt the recommended practices among mothers in rural
Muhanga District. Most mothers reported to verbally encourage the
children to eat during feeding. During the observation, mothers rarely
provided verbal encouragement during feeding and rarely allowed children
to self-feed. The study also revealed that factors such as the burden of
other responsibilities and poverty were perceived as barriers to
implement the responsive feeding practices (for mother-child interaction
during feeding).Therefore, interventions strategies to improve child
nutrition should address constraints to the issue of how to feed the
child in addition to and above what is fed to the child only.
Recommendations:
The findings from this study have a number of implications for future
nutrition interventions that optimize child development through
responsive feeding.
- Health professionals should pay greater attention to the behavior
components of complementary feeding (responsive feeding) and advise
mothers on how to practice it, in addition to what to feed the child.
- Health professionals should develop strategies with mothers to
implement what they know and making feeding time an enjoyable moment
for children and themselves.
- Health professionals should consider training mothers on age-
appropriate and developmentally appropriate mother –child interaction
during the complementary feeding period.
- There is a need to support mothers in securing their income and access
to food by addressing the competing demands and poverty issues that
affect their ability to practice responsive feeding.