Strategies and behaviors used by mothers in interactions with their young children during a mealtime in peri-urban areas of Huánuco, Peru

This study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding about different strategies used by mothers to feed their 6-23-month-old children, as well as to learn about mothers’ behaviors in response to situations of food refusal by her child, in order to generate evidence that contributes to the information gap on responsive feeding in Peru. The study was conducted in the city of Huánuco, a peri-urban area of Peru, with mothers of children in the complementary feeding stage participating. An in-depth 5-hour home observation was conducted in eight mother-child dyads. Both the mothers’ and children’s mealtime and food-related behaviors were coded and an inductive thematic analysis was applied. The primary objective of many of the strategies used by the mothers was to get their child to eat a little more. Six strategies were identified: pressure, encouragement, facilitating intake, acceptance, negotiation and reasoning. Certain differences were found in the strategies employed by the mother according to the age of her child, with mothers of younger children using more encouragement and mothers of older children using more pressure for their child to eat. The mothers’ behavior in response to the child's refusal of food was both responsive and non-responsive (controlling), depending on the reason for the refusal. The findings are of great value for understanding about the feeding interactions of mother-child dyads in Peru and they start to address the information gap and can support the development of nutritional intervention strategies for use with children.