Complementary feeding and maternal responsiveness in 8 to 24-month-old infants: a longitudinal study

In many Western countries, infants are traditionally introduced to solid foods through spoon-fed pureed foods (parent-led weaning [PLW]), but an alternative approach known as "baby-led weaning" (BLW) has become increasingly popular. With BLW, children participate in family meals and, when they show interest, caregivers provide food that they can eat independently. We have recently shown that maternal responsiveness to receptiveness and fullness cues correlated at 8, but not at 12 months. Moreover, mothers were more responsive to infants’ receptiveness than fullness cues, possibly due to an evolutionary drive to protect infants from starvation. Furthermore, responsiveness to fullness, but not to receptiveness, was positively related to the proportion of infant self-feeding. Here, we investigated the relationship between the complementary feeding approach and maternal responsiveness to receptiveness and fullness cues in 156 Italian children observed at 8, 12, 18 and 24 months of age. Mothers reported the complementary feeding method used (PLW, BLW, or mixed), and provided demographic information. Moreover, at each time point we recorded one meal for each child, from which we coded the proportion of self-feeding and rated maternal responsiveness by means of the Responsiveness to Child Feeding Cues Scale (Hodges et al., 2013). Random-effects ordered logistic regressions showed that mothers were more responsive to receptiveness when their child was 12- (z = -2.99, p = .003), 18- (z = -2.26, p = .024), and 24 months old (z = -2.21, p = .027) than when 8 months old, but there were no other significant age differences. Regardless of age there was a significant effect of (i) gender, with mothers of females being more responsive than those of males (z = 2.50; p = .012), (ii) feeding method, with mothers employing baby-led weaning being more responsive than those employing parent-led weaning (z = 1.99; p = .047), (iii) exclusive breastfeeding duration, which was negatively related with maternal responsiveness to receptiveness (z = -2.34; p = .020). Mothers were more responsive to fullness when their child was 12- than 8 months old (z = 3.22; p = -001), and 18- than 12 months old (z =5.90; p < .001), but responsiveness to fullness decreased between 24- and 18 months old (z =-2.58; p = .010). Regardless of age, responsiveness to fullness was positively related to proportion of self-feeding (z = 3.68; p < .001). Thus, maternal responsiveness to receptiveness was higher in girls than boys and in children breastfed for a lesser amount of time, whose mothers may have been more concerned children were not eating enough. Regardless of the complementary feeding approach, responsiveness to fullness, but not to receptiveness, decreased at around two years of age, probably as a maternal attempt to counteract child neophobia, which usually peaks at this time. Finally, a complementary feeding approach alternative to parent-led weaning was related to more infant-centered maternal responses both at the beginning and at the end of the meal, with potential implications for better infant self-regulation and possibly socio-emotional development beyond the weaning period.