Maternal responsiveness to child receptiveness and fullness cues from 8 to 24 months of age and their relation with complementary feeding approach and language proficiency

Abstract

We investigated the relationship between the complementary feeding approach (Baby-Led Weaning, Parent-Led Weaning or a mixed approach) and maternal responsiveness to child feeding cues in 166 children using mealtime observations at 8, 12, 18 and 24 months of age. We also explored whether maternally reported child linguistic proficiency was related to observed maternal responsiveness during mealtimes. Results suggest that mothers were more responsive to child receptiveness to eat when their children were 12 and 18 months old compared to when they were 8 months old. Mothers were increasingly responsive to their child's fullness cues at 8, 12, and 18 months. Mothers were less responsive to fullness when children were 24 months compared to 18 months old; although not assessed directly this may reflect a developmentally expected increase in child neophobia and picky eating as children age. Maternal responsiveness to fullness was positively correlated with child consumption of fruit and vegetables, which are usually among the least consumed food categories by neophobic and picky children. Furthermore, mothers who were more responsive to their infants' receptiveness to eat reported significantly lower levels of child verbal production at 12 months. In contrast, mothers who were more responsive to child fullness cues reported higher levels of infant verbal production, regardless of child age. Responsiveness to fullness was also positively related to proportion of self-feeding, which is a key feature of Baby-Led Weaning. In conclusion, in the first 18 months of life maternal responsiveness during mealtimes increased over time and was related to child language proficiency and ability to eat independently. These findings may extend to maternal responsiveness in contexts other than mealtimes with potential implications for the child socio-emotional development.