Breast-feeding, maternal feeding practices and mealtime negativity at one year

This paper explores whether breast-feeding, mediated by lower maternal use of controlling strategies, predicts more positive mealtime interactions between mothers and their I year old infants. Eighty-seven women completed questionnaires regarding breast-feeding, assessing their control over child feeding and mealtime negativity at I year of infant age. Seventy-four of these women were also observed feeding their infants solid food at I year. Mediation analyses demonstrated that the experience of breast-feeding, mediated by lower reported maternal control over child feeding, predicted maternal reports of less negative mealtime interactions. The experience of breast-feeding also predicted observations of less conflict at mealtimes, mediated by observations of maternal sensitivity during feeding interactions. The implications of these findings are discussed. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.