Elsevier

Academic Pediatrics

Volume 10, Issue 1, January–February 2010, Pages 29-35
Academic Pediatrics

Infant Feeding
Maternal Perceptions of Infant Hunger, Satiety, and Pressuring Feeding Styles in an Urban Latina WIC Population

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2009.08.001Get rights and content

Objective

Controlling feeding styles in which parents regulate feeding without responding to child cues have been associated with poor self-regulation of feeding and increased weight, but have not been well studied in infancy. We sought to assess maternal perception of infant feeding cues and pressuring feeding styles in an urban Latina Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) population.

Methods

Secondary analysis of a larger study of Latina mothers participating in New York City WIC programs. We examined maternal perception of infant feeding cues and pressuring feeding style. Using logistic regression, we assessed: 1) characteristics associated with perceptions of cues and pressuring to feed, including sociodemographics, breastfeeding, and maternal body mass index; and 2) whether perceptions of cues were associated with pressuring feeding style.

Results

We surveyed 368 mothers (84% response rate). Most mothers perceived that babies sense their own satiety. However, 72% believed that infant crying must indicate hunger. Fifty-three percent believed that mothers should always make babies finish the bottle (“pressure to feed”). Pressuring feeding style was associated with foreign maternal country of birth (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 3.05; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.66–5.60) and less than a high school education (AOR 1.81; 95% CI, 1.12–2.91). Two perceptions of feeding cues were related to pressuring feeding style: belief that infant crying must indicate hunger (AOR 2.59; 95% CI, 1.52–4.42) and infant hand sucking implies hunger (AOR 1.83; 95% CI, 1.10–3.03).

Conclusions

Maternal characteristics influence perception of infant hunger and satiety. Interpretation of feeding cues is associated with pressuring feeding style. Improving responsiveness to infant cues should be a component of early childhood obesity prevention.

Section snippets

Study Design

We performed a secondary analysis of data, collected as part of a larger study of Latina mother-infant dyads participating in the New York City Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), to better understand the sociodemographic correlates of maternal feeding perceptions and the relationship between maternal perceptions of infant hunger and satiety and pressuring feeding style. Public Health Solutions, a nonprofit research organization, conducted the study,

Study Sample

Four hundred fifty-two mothers were eligible for the study at enrollment and 13 refused to participate; 439 mothers completed the enrollment interview survey and 368 (84%) of these mothers also completed the telephone follow-up survey 3 months after enrollment. The 368 mothers who completed the follow-up telephone survey were included in this analysis. Of these mothers, 39 were missing maternal BMI from the follow-up survey; therefore, analyses containing maternal BMI had a sample number of

Discussion

In this study, we have provided new information regarding maternal interpretation of infant hunger and satiety cues and pressuring feeding styles, including their associated maternal and infant characteristics and their relationships to each other.

We found that the majority of mothers used commonly accepted hunger and satiety cues to identify their babies as hungry and full. However, more than 70% of mothers believed that if their infant is crying he must be hungry. These mothers may be less

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grant T01 CD000146 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Dr Gross) and by Public Health Solutions with a grant C703044 from the New York State Assembly, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver through the allotment in the Health Care Initiatives Pool as part of the 2003–2004 Health Care Reform Act (Dr Chiasson, Dr Rosenberg, Ms Scheinmann). We thank Edith Letamendi, MPA, Vanessa Bransburg, MSW and Diane Quintero, MS, who conducted the study interviews. We also

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