The strengths and limitations
The strengths of this study lies in its qualitative longitudinal nature, which allowed us to prospectively gain a deeper understanding of responsive feeding practices overtime. The use of direct observation provided an opportunity to capture verbal and non-verbal context of behavioral dynamics during feeding that were important yet not captured through self-report interviews. Nevertheless, the study suffered from a number of limitations. Mothers might have answered or modified their feeding practices in ways that they felt were more desirable during the observations due to our presence. We minimized reactivity by having established a sense of rapport and trust with mothers in the first five months of child’s life during the exploration of exclusive breastfeeding practices. We believe that the effect of reactivity would have been minimal as mothers were exposed to repeated interviews and observations before they were recorded and observed (at birth, first week, 4 months).More research is needed to explore the association between behavioral factors in complementary feeding and children’s nutrient intake.