Health Professionals’ Perspectives on the Infant Feeding Practices of Low Income Mothers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the perspectives of health professionals on assisting low income mothers with infant feeding. Low income mothers interact with a variety of health professionals through medical care and public health programs. Mothers indicate that health professionals are an important source of infant feeding information; however, they also report this information to be conflicting or difficult to follow. Five focus groups were conducted with 36 health professionals (pediatricians, nurses, WIC professionals, and Cooperative Extension nutrition educators). Individual interviews were also conducted with WIC professionals who were unavailable to meet as a group. Focus groups and interviews were audio taped, transcribed, and analyzed for common content categories. Six major content categories emerged from focus groups and individual interviews with health professionals: (1) Mothers' sources of infant feeding information, (2) Helping mothers deal with multiple sources of infant feeding advice, (3) Use of infant feeding recommendations by health professionals and their clients (4) Reasons mothers introduce cereal early to their infants (5) Mothers feeding infants in poor mealtime environments, and (6) Ways of providing education to mothers on infant feeding. A better understanding of health professionals' perspectives on working with low income mothers on infant feeding will inform nutrition education for these mothers, and may also inform strategies to improve communication between mothers and health professionals, subsequently improving infant health.