TY - JOUR
T1 - Infant feeding practices of low-income, African-American, adolescent mothers
T2 - An ecological, multigenerational perspective
AU - Bentley, Margaret
AU - Gavin, Lorrie
AU - Black, Maureen M.
AU - Teti, Laureen
N1 - Funding Information:
Special thanks go to the study's informants, who generously shared details of their lives with us, and to the study's superb interviewers, Yolanda Abel and Erica Hamlet. Support for this research was partially provided by The Gerber Foundation and by the Maternal and Child Health Program (Title V, Social Security Act), Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
PY - 1999/10
Y1 - 1999/10
N2 - The early introduction of non-milk foods among African-American infants has been well documented. Several studies report the addition of semi-solids as early as 1-2 weeks of age. This study investigated, through ethnographic, repeat indepth interviews with teen mothers and grandmothers of infants, the determinants of such feeding practices and the inter-generational factors involved in infant feeding decision-making. Nineteen adolescent mothers were recruited from Baltimore City WIC programs. The teen mothers were interviewed in their homes during four separate visits and the grandmothers at least twice. Ethnographic field guides focused on questions about what, why and how infants were fed and on the 'ethnotheories' of parenting and infant care in this population. All interviews were taped and transcripts were analyzed using text retrieval software. Results confirmed that it is the cultural norm to feed cereal in the bottle and to feed other semi-solid foods within the first month of life. Most grandmothers played the dominant role in deciding what the infant should eat and the timing of the introduction of solids. This pattern occurred both because grandmothers had extensive physical access to their grandchildren and because teen mothers were dependent upon grandmothers. The use of qualitative research methods, with an ecological, multi-generational focus, provides a rich description of the context within which infant feeding decisions are made.
AB - The early introduction of non-milk foods among African-American infants has been well documented. Several studies report the addition of semi-solids as early as 1-2 weeks of age. This study investigated, through ethnographic, repeat indepth interviews with teen mothers and grandmothers of infants, the determinants of such feeding practices and the inter-generational factors involved in infant feeding decision-making. Nineteen adolescent mothers were recruited from Baltimore City WIC programs. The teen mothers were interviewed in their homes during four separate visits and the grandmothers at least twice. Ethnographic field guides focused on questions about what, why and how infants were fed and on the 'ethnotheories' of parenting and infant care in this population. All interviews were taped and transcripts were analyzed using text retrieval software. Results confirmed that it is the cultural norm to feed cereal in the bottle and to feed other semi-solid foods within the first month of life. Most grandmothers played the dominant role in deciding what the infant should eat and the timing of the introduction of solids. This pattern occurred both because grandmothers had extensive physical access to their grandchildren and because teen mothers were dependent upon grandmothers. The use of qualitative research methods, with an ecological, multi-generational focus, provides a rich description of the context within which infant feeding decisions are made.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0277-9536(99)00198-7
DO - 10.1016/S0277-9536(99)00198-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 10475672
AN - SCOPUS:0032788846
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 49
SP - 1085
EP - 1100
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
IS - 8
ER -