The purpose of the proposed study is to examine the quality of feeding interactions over time and to develop an observational tool for parent-toddler interactions that will have utility in both research and clinical practice. Infancy and toddlerhood are marked by the emergence of autonomy and the establishment of independent feeding patterns that may contribute to either healthy growth and development or poor nutritional outcomes, such as failure to thrive, obesity, or later eating disorders. These poor nutritional outcomes have detrimental health consequences in childhood and into adulthood. Research on feeding interactions is limited by the lack of tools that assess feeding beyond the first year of life. Therefore, a secondary analysis of mother-toddler feeding interactions (N = 126), videotaped at 12, 24, and 36 months as part of a longitudinal, observational study, is proposed to assess the reliability and validity of the Nurse Child Assessment of Feeding Scale (NCAFS) at 24 and 36 months.
A second aim i s to assess how maternal characteristics and child temperament contribute to variations in feeding interactions, initially at 12 months and subsequently at 24 and 36 months, if NCAFS reliability and validity are established.
| Hodges, Eric A; Houck, Gail M; Kindermann, Thomas (2007) Reliability of the Nursing Child Assessment Feeding Scale during toddlerhood. Issues Compr Pediatr Nurs 30:109-30 |
