Feeding practices, healthcare and kinship during the first year of life

This paper reports a study of how babies are fed during their first year of life as practiced by families living in a low-income neighborhood of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil and served by the state's Family Health Program. Two families were followed up over a year using the Bick method for the observation of mother-infant relationships. The results showed that although the families appreciated the recommendations of health professionals regarding the need to practice exclusive breastfeeding until the child reached six months, in practice during their first few weeks of life the babies were started on complementary food in addition to breast milk. The mothers made decisions regarding feeding the babies taking into consideration the following: The opinions of a selection of relatives; food availability; ideas about what is suitable for the developing baby; and finally, their observations of the child's responses. The results show that food is part of the mutually imbricated processes of the social construction of the person and the constitution of kinship ties. The conclusion reflects on the implications of these findings for health practices.

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Main Authors: Bustamante,Vania, McCallum,Cecilia
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas 2014
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-166X2014000300011
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spelling oai:scielo:S0103-166X20140003000112014-10-14Feeding practices, healthcare and kinship during the first year of lifeBustamante,VaniaMcCallum,Cecilia Healthcare Kinship structure Mother child relations Nutrition This paper reports a study of how babies are fed during their first year of life as practiced by families living in a low-income neighborhood of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil and served by the state's Family Health Program. Two families were followed up over a year using the Bick method for the observation of mother-infant relationships. The results showed that although the families appreciated the recommendations of health professionals regarding the need to practice exclusive breastfeeding until the child reached six months, in practice during their first few weeks of life the babies were started on complementary food in addition to breast milk. The mothers made decisions regarding feeding the babies taking into consideration the following: The opinions of a selection of relatives; food availability; ideas about what is suitable for the developing baby; and finally, their observations of the child's responses. The results show that food is part of the mutually imbricated processes of the social construction of the person and the constitution of kinship ties. The conclusion reflects on the implications of these findings for health practices.info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessPrograma de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de CampinasEstudos de Psicologia (Campinas) v.31 n.3 20142014-09-01info:eu-repo/semantics/articletext/htmlhttp://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-166X2014000300011en10.1590/0103-166x2014000300011
institution SCIELO
collection OJS
country Brasil
countrycode BR
component Revista
access En linea
databasecode rev-scielo-br
tag revista
region America del Sur
libraryname SciELO
language English
format Digital
author Bustamante,Vania
McCallum,Cecilia
spellingShingle Bustamante,Vania
McCallum,Cecilia
Feeding practices, healthcare and kinship during the first year of life
author_facet Bustamante,Vania
McCallum,Cecilia
author_sort Bustamante,Vania
title Feeding practices, healthcare and kinship during the first year of life
title_short Feeding practices, healthcare and kinship during the first year of life
title_full Feeding practices, healthcare and kinship during the first year of life
title_fullStr Feeding practices, healthcare and kinship during the first year of life
title_full_unstemmed Feeding practices, healthcare and kinship during the first year of life
title_sort feeding practices, healthcare and kinship during the first year of life
description This paper reports a study of how babies are fed during their first year of life as practiced by families living in a low-income neighborhood of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil and served by the state's Family Health Program. Two families were followed up over a year using the Bick method for the observation of mother-infant relationships. The results showed that although the families appreciated the recommendations of health professionals regarding the need to practice exclusive breastfeeding until the child reached six months, in practice during their first few weeks of life the babies were started on complementary food in addition to breast milk. The mothers made decisions regarding feeding the babies taking into consideration the following: The opinions of a selection of relatives; food availability; ideas about what is suitable for the developing baby; and finally, their observations of the child's responses. The results show that food is part of the mutually imbricated processes of the social construction of the person and the constitution of kinship ties. The conclusion reflects on the implications of these findings for health practices.
publisher Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas
publishDate 2014
url http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-166X2014000300011
work_keys_str_mv AT bustamantevania feedingpracticeshealthcareandkinshipduringthefirstyearoflife
AT mccallumcecilia feedingpracticeshealthcareandkinshipduringthefirstyearoflife
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