Abstract:
BACKGROUND
There is a limited amount of literature on the feeding characteristics and nature of possible feeding
difficulties of infants in a primary health care (PHC) in South Africa.
OBJECTIVE
To describe feeding characteristics and determine the nature of feeding difficulties of infants in a PHC
setting in South Africa.
METHOD
Two hundred infants aged six to 12 months (mean age = 8.54, Standard Deviation = 2.18) received a
feeding screening by a speech-language therapist at a well-baby clinic in a semi-urban area using the
Montreal Children’s Hospital-Feeding Scale (MCH-FS). A clinical feeding evaluation using the Schedule of Oral Motor Assessment (SOMA) was completed with 13 infants who failed the screen.
RESULTS
The MCH-FS identified 13 participants with feeding difficulties (6.5%) of which 11 were diagnosed with
oral motor dysfunction (OMD) using the SOMA. The 6.5% (n=13) that failed, had mild (n=8;61.5%),
moderate (n=2;15.4%), and severe (n=3;23.1%) feeding difficulties, as reported by caregivers using
the MCH-FS. The MCH-FS revealed that distraction during mealtimes/following (n=42;21%), food
refusal (n=31; 15.5%), caregiver unease about feeding (n=29;14.5%), and problems with vomiting,
gagging or spitting (n=28;14%), were characteristics of feeding in this sample. Participants in the age
groups six (n=3;27.3%) and 10 months (n=3;27.3%) were prone to OMD. Complementary feeding was
introduced appropriately between six and eight months in the majority of the sample (n=122;82%). CONCLUSION
The study was the first of its kind to describe the feeding characteristics of a group of infants during
the transitional feeding stage in late infancy in South Africa. The findings may be used as a starting
point for larger scale studies in a similar setting, investigating the development of future caregiver
education and health care professional training programmes regarding transitional feeding.
