The mother-infant feeding tool.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the development and evaluation of an observation system to assess the process of mother-infant feeding interaction relevant to infant neuro-behavioral regulation: the Mother-Infant Feeding Tool.


METHODS
Secondary analysis.


METHODS
Special care nursery just before discharge and in the home at 1 and 4 months postterm age.


METHODS
Forty-three mother-infant dyads.


METHODS
Videotaped feeding interactions were examined to assess regulatory processes of mother-infant interaction. Data were collected at three times over the infant's first 4 postterm months: before the infant's discharge from the special care nursery and at 1 and 4 months postterm age in the home.


RESULTS
Across all three data points mothers rarely talked to their infants.


CONCLUSIONS
Further testing is needed, but the Mother-Infant Feeding Tool shows promise in assessing very early mother-infant feeding interactions.
Brown
Lisa F
LF
School of Nursing, Virginia Commonwealth University, P.O. Box 980567, Richmond, VA 23298, USA. lfbrown2@vcu.edu
Thoyre
Suzanne
S
Pridham
Karen
K
Schubert
Christine
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001903:Bottle Feeding; D001942:Breast Feeding; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D019370:Observation / Q000379:methods*; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014743:Videotape Recording