Feeding Behaviors and other motor development in healthy children (2-24 months)

Objectives: To monitor infant's gross, fine and oral motor development patterns related to feeding. Design: An incomplete block design was used with 57 to 60 (sample = 98) mothers interviewed when their children were 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16 and 24 months (within +/- 5 days of birth date). Each mother had 5 to 6 interviews. Setting: Selected developmental feeding behaviors were monitored using in-home interviews conducted by trained interviewers (n = 2). At each interview, mothers reported the child's age when behaviors first occurred, and anthropometric measurements were performed. Subjects: Subjects were healthy white children who lived mostly in homes with educated two-parent families of upper socioeconomic status. Results: Mean behavioral ages were within normal ranges reported in the literature, whereas individuals exhibited a wide diversity in reported ages. Examples of gross motor skills (age in months, +/- SD) included sitting without help (5.50 +/- 2.08) and crawling (8.00 +/- 1.55). Mean ages for self-feeding fine motor skills showed children reaching for a spoon when hungry (5.47 +/- 1.44), using fingers to rake food toward self (8.87 +/- 2.58) and using fingers to self-feed soft foods ( 13.52 +/- 2.83). Oral behaviors included children opening their mouth when food approached (4.46 +/- 1.37), eating food with tiny lumps (8.70 +/- 2.03) and chewing and swallowing firmer foods without choking (12.17 +/- 2.29). Conclusions: Mean ages for feeding behaviors occurred within expected age ranges associated with normal development. However, mothers reported that individual children exhibited a wide age range for achieving these behaviors. Our results should be considered in counseling mothers about infant feeding practices.