Awareness and Support of Responsive Bottle Feeding Among WIC Counselors and Caregivers: A Formative Qualitative Study.

OBJECTIVE: To understand the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) counselor experiences discussing responsive bottle feeding during counseling and WIC participants' knowledge, understanding, and use of responsive bottle feeding. METHODS: Qualitative descriptive, semistructured interviews with 23 participants (8 WIC counselors and 15 WIC participants) were conducted online via Zoom. The WIC counselors and mothers of WIC-enrolled bottle-fed infants were recruited through a network of WIC clinics in North Carolina. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and collaboratively analyzed using content analysis. RESULTS: The WIC participants received responsive infant feeding support from WIC counselors but often in the context of breastfeeding. WIC counselors provided valuable support for families but were challenged by limited training on responsive bottle feeding, balancing promoting breastfeeding with supporting mothers' feeding decisions, and time constraints. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Findings provide preliminary support for the need to develop and pilot an intervention focused on promoting responsive feeding for parents of bottle-fed infants.

Mental Health and Feeding Styles in Parents of Formula-Fed Infants.

Background: Nonresponsive feeding styles can contribute to rapid weight gain in infancy and subsequent obesity in childhood. There is a need to investigate factors such as parental mental health symptoms (stress, depression, and anxiety) that may contribute to nonresponsive feeding styles. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between parental mental health symptoms and feeding styles in parents of healthy, term formula-fed infants during the first year of life. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive correlational design was employed using online surveys. We recruited participants through Facebook groups and pediatricians' offices. Instruments included a demographic questionnaire, the Perceived Stress Scale-10, Patient Health Questionnaire-Depression Module-9, 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment, and Infant Feeding Style Questionnaire. Results: Participants were 306 parents of formula-fed infants. Greater depressive symptoms was the strongest predictor of the pressuring style (ß = 0.54), while greater symptoms of stress (ß = -0.13) and anxiety (ß = -0.28) were associated with lower pressuring scores. Greater depressive symptoms was the strongest predictor of the laissez-faire style (ß = 0.48), while greater symptoms of stress (ß = -0.17) and anxiety (ß = -0.23) were associated with lower laissez-faire scores. Engaging in ≤50% of the infant's feeds was the strongest control variable predictor for the pressuring and laissez-faire styles. None of the mental health variables were significantly related to the restrictive style. Conclusions: We recommend increased screening for depressive symptoms in parents of infants and responsive feeding support, especially for those experiencing depressive symptoms.

Concordance in dietary intake among caregivers and infants during the period of complementary feeding: A scoping review.

Dietary intake during infancy shapes later food preferences and is important for short- and long-term health and wellbeing. Although caregivers are thought to influence the developing food preferences of infants, children less than two years have been notably absent in existing meta-analyses on the topic. This scoping review seeks to fill this gap by using a systematic process to identify and summarize the published literature on the resemblance of caregiver and infant diet during the period of complementary feeding (6-23 months). Articles were included if they assessed intake of foods or beverages other than human milk or commercial milk formula and reported a test of association between the intake of caregivers and infants. Four electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, and Global Health) were systematically searched for articles published since 2000. Thirty-three articles, representing 32 studies, were identified. The majority of studies examined infant intake of food groups/items (n = 20), seven studies examined infant dietary patterns, and six studies examined dietary diversity. Studies predominantly reported associations between diets of mothers and infants (n = 31); three studies reported associations for fathers. Most studies assessed infant diet at one timepoint (n = 26), with 12 studies combining the intakes of younger (0-11 months) and older infants (12-23 months). Food groups examined, in order of frequency, included 'non-core' foods and beverages (n = 14), vegetables (n = 13), fruits (n = 12), protein foods (n = 6), grains (n = 5), and dairy foods (n = 4). Definitions of variables for food groups and dietary patterns were highly heterogeneous, but consistent for dietary diversity. Nearly all studies (n = 31) reported significant associations between dietary intakes of caregivers and infants. Findings suggest caregiver diet may be a promising focus for interventions aiming to shape the food preferences and dietary intakes of infants.

A Validated Score Predicts Acute Kidney Injury and Survival in Patients With Alcoholic Hepatitis.

Identifying patients at high risk for acute kidney injury (AKI) during hospitalization among patients admitted with severe alcoholic hepatitis (AH) is an unmet clinical need. We performed a multicentric prospective cohort study using data from 4 different cohorts on well-characterized patients hospitalized with severe AH. Data collected on 773 AH patients from 4 cohorts across the globe were randomly split into test (n = 390) and validation (n = 383) cohorts. We found that 32% of the patients developed inpatient AKI in the test cohort. Approximately 60% of patients met criteria for systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) at admission. Hepatic encephalopathy, SIRS, and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score at admission predicted inpatient AKI with odds ratios of 3.86, 2.24, and 1.14, respectively. The AKI risk score developed using these predictors stratified risk of inpatient AKI to low (score <3), moderate (3-4), and high (>4). These findings were replicated in the validation cohort. In the whole study cohort, patients with AKI had a lower 90-day survival (53% versus 77%; P < 0.001). Those with AKI risk score of >4 had significantly lower 90-day survival as compared with those with risk scores between 3 and 4 and <3 (47% versus 68% versus 88%; P < 0.001). In conclusion, AKI occurs frequently in AH patients and negatively impacts short-term mortality. The AKI risk score is useful in identifying patients at high risk for inpatient AKI and may be useful for developing new therapeutic strategies to prevent AKI in patients with AH.