The Mother-Child Food Relationship in the Study of Infant and Young Child Feeding

Abstract

The mother-child food relationship Scholarship on infant and young child feeding (IYCF) has focused broadly on the following areas: assessments of IYCF (usually based on WHO IYCF indicators or nutrient intakes); the association of indicators or nutrient intakes with measures of nutritional status; the impact of agriculture on IYCF indicators or nutrient intakes; the social determinants of IYCF (e.g., maternal knowledge; income); and intervention studies aimed at improving IYCF practices. The latter have mainly been considered in the context of education and counseling activities and supplementation programs. In this article, we bring a cultural perspective to bear on IYCF – specifically, discoveries around the centrality of the motherinfant dyad food relationship to the study of IYCF. In our field, the influence of the mother has been explored primarily in terms of her knowledge of appropriate practices and as a variable or a factor of relevance to IYCF, such as maternal education or maternal obesity.1 For example, by studying the knowledge and attitudes of the mother, researchers can examine the association of these variables with the dietary intake or nutritional status of the child. While these studies indicate that the mother’s knowledge and attitudes are influential, we have yet to uncover the pathways that reveal precisely how her influence is exerted. In the following, we describe the nature of the mother-infant dyad food relationship, drawing from our work in Mexico, sub-Saharan Africa and China, with the aim of sharing how the cultural perspective can expand our explanatory frameworks and can improve intervention designs.