Differences in eating behaviours and mothers attitudes between baby-led weaning vs. traditional spoon-feeding approaches in Turkiye

Abstract

This study was aimed to examine the differences in eating behaviours and mothers attitudes between baby-led vs. traditional spoon-feeding approaches and its effect on eating behaviours in preschool children. The study was conducted with 150 mothers of children aged 2–6, who applied to the Pediatrics Polyclinic of Başkent University Ankara Hospital, between December 2022 and February 2023. Sociodemographics, biochemical parameters were recorded to form. Maternal attitudes and eating behaviours of children were evaluated with Mother's Attitudes Towards the Feeding Process Scale (MATFP) and Early Childhood Adaptive Eating Behaviour Scale (ECAEB), respectively. The mean age of the children was 43.80 ± 11.04 months and 51.3% of them were girls. A weak negative correlation was found between the ECAEB total scores and the child age (r = −0.196, p < 0.05). A moderate positive correlation was found between the total scores of the MATFP and ECAEB (r = 0.699, p < 0.001). There wasn't significant difference between the MATFP total scores who chose baby-led weaning or traditional feeding (p > 0.05). According to the ECAEB; aggression and reaction to main meal order subgroup scores of children who consumed pureed vegetables until the ninth month were higher than those who didn't consume them (p < 0.05). Mothers who prefer the TSF offer their babies more blenderized and pureed foods, while those who prefer the BLW serve fork-mashed, steamed and sliced foods (p < 0,05). As the mothers‘ subscale scores for negative affect during meals, attitudes about insufficient/unbalanced feeding, negative feeding strategies, forced feeding, reaction to viewpoint of others increase, so did their subscale scores for child reluctance, eating refusal associated with sensory causes, aggression, reaction to main meal order increase. Consequently, it's believed that maternal attitudes and actions should be taken into account while evaluating the eating habits of toddlers.