UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #1125

Overall Research Project Description Infant feeding practices include both what infants are fed and how infants are fed.1-3 Breastfeeding for longer durations, the introduction of complementary foods after 4 months of age, and responsive feeding contribute to healthy infant growth.2,4,5 Healthy infant growth is associated with healthy weight later in childhood.6,7 Responsive feeding occurs when a caregiver learns, recognizes, and responds promptly and appropriately to the infant’s cues of hunger and satiation.8 Theory posits that responsive feeding promotes awareness of internal cues for the infant, and thus, self-regulation that contributes to healthy eating and weight trajectories across developmental stages. Interventions to promote responsive feeding in mother-infant dyads have proven successful in promoting responsive feeding,9,10 healthy infant weight gain,10,11 and infant eating behaviors.12-14 Prior work supports that mothers who breastfeed are more likely to engage in responsive feeding.15,16 A novel premise of the current proposal (Aim 1) is that a bidirectional association between breastfeeding and responsive feeding may exist (Figure 1). The latter finding would support the value of training mothers in responsive feeding techniques to increase the likelihood and duration of breastfeeding.
The Candidate and her team developed an individualized responsive feeding intervention, Learning Early Infant Feeding Cues (LEIFc). LEIFc comprises brief videos, written material, and face-to-face coaching sessions guided by a validated coaching approach called SS-OO-PP-RR (or “super,” Setting the Stage, Observation and Opportunities to Embed, Problem Solving and Planning, Reflection and Review).17 A feasibility and fidelity study of the LEIFc intervention is complete. The proposed study aimed to understand needs of mothers enrolled in government funded maternal-child home visiting programs (Early Head Start, Healthy Start) related to infant feeding. Additionally, input from the maternal-child home visiting program personnel was also sough. Interviews were conducted with mothers and home visiting personnel staff. The data need to be analyzed.