Weaning in Japan: A longitudinal study of mother and child behaviours during milk‐ and solid‐feeding

Abstract

Behaviours of seven Japanese mother-infant dyads during daytime feeding of both milk and solids were observed longitudinally to the middle of the second year. The first 3 months were a period of exclusive milk-feeding largely uninterrupted by mother-infant social interaction. In the following 6 months there was increasing mother-infant communicative interaction during milk-feeding and the mother began attempts to feed solids. After 8 months, weaning was promoted by reduction in some types of interaction during milk-feeding, and increased rejection by the infant of passive feeding as self-feeding of solids increased. Self-feeding was at first mainly by hand, and later with tools. A positive correlation was found between hand-feeding at 12-14 months and active physical stimulation of the infant by the mother during milk-feeding in the first year. Self-feeding of solids with tools increased significantly after 1% years, and the mother supported this development. The mother showed non-intentional eating-like mouth movement at the moment infants ate (empathetic behaviour), and this behaviour peaked in the latter half of the first year and decreased thereafter. The development of independence or autonomy in feeding was a mutual or cooperative process between mother and infant, and was initiated by the infant rather than imposed by the mother.Key words: Weaning, milk-feeding, solid-feeding, empathetic behaviour, rejection, autonomy.Mammalian offspring are at first nutritionally dependent on their mother's milk. According to a sociobiological hypothesis, weaning is the process of reducing this dependency, and hence reducing the mother's 'biological burden'. This would suggest that it is she who takes the initiative.*Address for correspondence: Koichi Negayama, Food Science Department, Mukogawa Women's University, 6-46 Ikebiraki, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 663, Japan Thus Trivers (1974) concluded that disagreement on the time of weaning between mothers and offspring causes conflict. The source of nutrition for young mammals normally begins with breast milk then solids are introduced, and the process of weaning is most simply described as a shift between the two kinds of food, one produced by the mother and the other not. Altmann (1980) explained weaning of baboon offspring as a consequence of conflict between the offspring's nutritional demand and the mother's capacity to fulfil it.

Kowakare: A New Perspective on the Development of Early Mother–Offspring Relationship

“…In solid feeding, mother shows an empathetic mouth opening/closing at the moment of the child’s food-taking (Negayama 1993), with a peak in frequency at 9 months. The decrease of the behavior reflects a psychological state of mothers underlying weaning as Kowakare .…”

Development of Eating Behavior by Japanese Toddlers in a Nursery School: Relation to Independent Walking

“…old, the rate at which toddlers ate food given by the teachers decreased and the rate at which they ate by themselves increased. The process of the development of eating behavior in nursery school is similar to that for mother-child dyads at home in Japan (Negayama, 1993).…”

“…There have only been a limited number of studies focusing on the eating behavior of typically developing young children. Negayama (1993) observed the weaning process in mother-child dyads. Norimatsu (1993) showed cultural differences in the onset time and pace of acquiring independent eating between Japanese and French toddlers.…”

Intra-cultural variation in child care practices in Japan

“…Mealtimes were chosen because, from birth, the caregiver-child feeding interaction is communicative and cooperative in nature (Kaye & Wells, 1980). During infancy, children are not skilled at self-feeding, and thus mealtime interaction is an inherently collaborative and interactive process between caregivers and children (van Dijk, Hunnius, & van Geert, 2009, 2012Negayama, 1993;Toyama, 2013Toyama, , 2014. Here, we could easily see the characteristics of caregiver-child interaction at mealtimes.…”

“…From around the first birthday, at time they learn to walk, children become much less interested in food (e.g. Negayama, 1993), and thus caretakers must cope with toddlers' resistance to eating. Compared to those at preschool, children at home tended to be more resistant.…”