Feeding characteristics of infants in a primary health care clinic in South Africa

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.