Baby-led weaning versus traditional weaning: the assessment of nutritional status in early childhood and maternal feeding practices in Turkey

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to examine the assessment of nutritional status in early childhood and the experiences of the mothers whose children started traditional and/or baby-led complementary weaning. The study included 485 mothers who used social media, all of whom had a 6–24 month-old child receiving complementary foods. In order to collect data, Socio-demographic and Anthropometric Data Collection Form, Complementary Feeding Transition Information Form, and Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ) were used. The findings indicate that the children whose mothers adopted traditional weaning suffered less from iron deficiency, (p < .05). There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of aspiration/choking situation (p > .05). However, there was a significant difference between the groups in terms of the children's BMI (p < .07). It was determined that the mothers who preferred traditional weaning had more control over their infant’s feeding, and these children tended to be more overweight.

KEYWORDS:

• Baby-led weaning
• traditional weaning
• nutritional status in early childhood
• growth
• maternal feeding practices

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank the administrators of the Facebook group ‘BLW Türkiye’, Blogger Mother Elif Doğan, social media group administrators related to the transition to nutritional supplements and complementary feeding and all the mothers who participated in the questionnaire. Also we would like to thank Mehmet Orman for statistical analysis.

A.K., M.G. designed the research questions; A.K., M.G., and Ş.B. data collected and commented the statistical analysis and A.K. and Z.B. wrote all drafts of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical considerations

Written permission was obtained from the Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Committee (IRB number: E. 263151, Protocol number: 282–2017, Approval date: 16.10.2017).

Notes on contributors

Ayşe Kahraman is a Assistant Professor at the Ege University Faculty of Nursing. Her specialty is Pediatric Nursing. Her research and interest areas are newborn nursing, nutrition in childhood, pain management in children, non-pharmacological methods, epilepsy in childhood, simulation in nursing education.

Merve Gümüş is a Research Assistant at the Ege University Faculty of Nursing. Her specialty is Pediatric Nursing. Her research and interest areas are technological developments in child health, nutrition in childhood, pain management in children, pedaitric surgical nursing.

Şeyda Binay yaz is a PhD and RN. She is a assistant professor at Faculty of Health Science Nursing Department from Izmir Bakircay University in Turkey. Her specialty is child health and diseases nursing and her research and interest areas are pain management, non-pharmacological methods, child surgery nursing and child nutrition.

Zümrüt Başbakkal is a Professor at the Ege University Faculty of Nursing. Her specialty is Pediatric Nursing. Her research and interest areas are oncology nursing, patient safety, newborn nursing, nutrition in childhood, pain management, epilepsy in childhood, nursing education.

ORCID

Ayşe Kahraman http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7142-6592

Merve Gümüş http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8648-594X

Şeyda Binay Yaz http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3689-2090

Zümrüt Başbakkal http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7937-7518