Characterizing Caregiver Verbalizations to Infants During the Introduction of a Novel Food

Abstract

ObjectivesTo characterize parental verbal prompts to infants during feeding and the relation of parent verbalizations to infant acceptance of a novel food. MethodsFeeding interactions of parent-child dyads (n = 106; 54% boys; mean age 13.3 ± 4.9 mo) were video-recorded and all parental verbal communications to infants and infant acceptance/rejection of the bites were coded. Verbal prompts, defined a priori, were categorized as positive (8 codes, e.g., verbal encouragement), neutral (4 codes, e.g., comments about color of food) and negative (6 codes, e.g., pressure) prompts. Trained coders classified each utterance and recorded the number and rate of bites accepted (mean K = .81 for all codes). Frequency of verbal prompts were examined by infant sex (M/F), age (6–11.9, 12–17.9, & 18–24 mo), and over the course of the feeding using Wilcoxon rank sums & Kruskal Wallis tests (p < .05). Spearman’s rho tested associations between verbalization frequency and both the number of accepted and rejected bites and the rate of bite acceptance. ResultsTotal parent verbalizations increased with infant age (p = .002). No differences were noted by infant sex. Positive verbalizations declined over the course of the feed (p = .02), whereas neutral (p = .20) and negative (p = .09) verbalizations exhibited no significant change. Total verbalizations were positively correlated with the number of rejected bites (p = .0009). In contrast, fewer negative verbalizations were correlated with more accepted bites (p = .02) and a lower rate of acceptance (p = .002). The absence of verbalizations was correlated with more accepted bites (p = .02) and a higher rate of acceptance (p = .004). ConclusionsDuring the course of offering a novel food, caregivers generally spoke more often with older infants and when children rejected the food. Caregivers appear to be more likely to employ verbal strategies to coax the acceptance of a food when children are reluctant to eat, rather than proactively engaging children throughout the feeding interaction. Furthermore, the nature and tone of caregiver verbalizations during feeding interactions may change over the course of the feeding session with positive verbalizations waning and the use of negative and neutral prompts increasing if children show reluctance to consume the food. Funding SourcesThe Sugar Association.