Creation and evaluation of a support strategy chart for infant and toddler feeding consultations by chief complaint - A pilot intervention study -

Abstract

Traditional general feeding guidelines for healthy children indicate how to support children based on their age in months or years; however, in recent years, there has been an increase in cases that are difficult to solve from the perspective of age in months or years alone. Therefore, in this study, we developed a tool to enable nutritionists and other feeding support professionals to easily gather information and provide appropriate support by assessing the developmental stage of each individual's feeding function, such as lip, corner of mouth, tongue, and jaw movement, during infant health check-ups and childcare consultations, without being restricted solely to chronological age, and to develop a “feeding support manual.” The “Chart of Supportive Measures for Infant Dietary Consultation by Main Complaints” was developed in collaboration with various allied professions. As a result of using this manual to support children in the later stages of weaning, there was little difference in the proportion of children with immature chewing skills at the end of weaning between children who were below the stage of chewing development and children of the same age or in the control group, showing that manual guidance had some effect. In the future, we would like to work with relevant organizations and professionals to improve the manual and make it even easier to use.