Household dynamics of maternal caregiving and agricultural labour in complementary feeding practices in rural farming communities in Geita Region, Tanzania: a qualitative study

Abstract

Objective

Inappropriate complementary feeding contributes to child undernutrition, even in food-secure areas. This paradox highlights the need to look beyond food availability and examine the household-level mechanisms that shape everyday feeding decisions in the farming and food-secure settings. The objective of this study was to explore the household dynamics of maternal caregiving and agricultural labour in complementary feeding practices in rural farming communities in Geita.

Design

Phenomenology study design was employed to explore the lived experiences and perceptions of mothers regarding complementary feeding practices.

Setting

Rural farming communities in Geita Region, Tanzania.

Participants

Mothers of children aged 6–23 months were purposively selected to participate in seven in-depth interviews and two focus group discussions.

Results

In these farming communities, four household-level factors were found to influence complementary feeding practices: maternal responsibility and farming obligations, carrying children and porridge to the farms, limited paternal involvement, fatigue due to prolonged farm work, reliance on elder siblings for childcare and fear of judgement or sanctions for late arrival at the farm. Farming emerged as a cross-cutting theme that intersected all these sub-themes.

Conclusion

Mothers described complementary feeding practices as closely linked to household division of labour, caregiving arrangements and the demands of farming activities that shaped daily routines. These findings suggest the need for context-sensitive strategies that consider intra-household roles and the time constraints associated with subsistence farming.

STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS OF THIS STUDY.

• The phenomenological qualitative design with triangulation of in-depth interviews and focus group discussions enabled an in-depth exploration of mothers’ experiences influencing complementary feeding.

• Rigorous thematic analysis with verbatim transcription, systematic coding and participant validation enhanced the credibility and richness of the findings.

• The reliance on self-reported experiences may have introduced recall and social desirability bias in describing feeding practices.

• The absence of perspectives from fathers and other household members restricts a more comprehensive understanding of intra-household decision-making dynamics.

Introduction

Complementary feeding practices, which involve introducing appropriate foods to children aged 6–23 months alongside breastfeeding, are critical for optimal growth and child development.1,4 It has been estimated that appropriate complementary feeding practices contribute to a 17% reduction in the prevalence of stunting at 24 months of age and could avert 6% of under-five deaths each year.5,7 The WHO recommends an infant to be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life, then begin nutritionally adequate, safe and appropriately-fed complementary foods from six to 24 months in order to meet the evolving needs of the growing infant.^{2 4} The optimal and appropriate complementary foods entail foods given to infants based on appropriate portions, frequencies and nutrients as recommended by WHO.^{2 3 8 9}

Despite the demonstrated benefits of appropriate complementary feeding practices, inappropriate complementary feeding is still widespread in many developing countries, including Tanzania, with subsequent negative impact on child health and survival.^{4 8 10} In Tanzania, in particular, a higher proportion of children succumb to poor complementary feeding practices, especially in the rural areas.^{11 12} A higher proportion (65%) of children had low dietary diversity and 40% had low meal frequency in a study in rural Bukombe, Tanzania.¹² Data from a recent Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey showed that 64% of infants are exclusively breastfed for 6 months, 33% of children aged 6–23 months are given minimum recommended meal frequency and only 19% are given minimum recommended diverse diet.^{4 11}

Contrary to the global trends where children from households with sufficient crop harvests are expected to have an advantage in terms of better feeding practices and nutritional growth,^{12 13} poor complementary feeding practices and subsequent magnitude of undernutrition are predominantly higher in high food-producing regions which are referred to as ‘food basket regions’ of Tanzania.^{11 12} Available evidence indicates above national average stunting levels in areas that have better food crop harvests. Such regions are Geita, Iringa, Rukwa, Njombe and Ruvuma harvests.^{11 12} A recent study in rural Tanzania found that more than half (54.5%) of children from crop-farming households were stunted.¹⁴

This paradox suggests the need for contextual understanding of the household level mechanisms beyond the known determinants of poor complementary feeding and child undernutrition which have been widely studied at the general population.^{4 9 12 13 15 16} Guided by the Social Ecological Model, this study conceptualised these influences as operating across interconnected levels, specifically at the household interface between individual caregiving roles and broader community expectations.¹⁷ Since complementary feeding is done at the household level, it suggests that household level dynamics that are beyond food availability, such as household caregiving practices, division of responsibilities, resource and feeding decisions, may play a significant role in determining feeding practices and nutritional outcomes.^{4 9 13 15 16} However, there is a dearth of research exploring the mothers’ lived experiences of the household-level dynamics influencing complementary feeding specifically within farming and food-secure settings. This premised the need for a deeper understanding of contextual household level mechanisms underlying complementary feeding practices among children of age 6–23 months in the food secure-farming communities. Therefore, this study explored the household dynamics of maternal care giving and farming responsibilities influence on complementary feeding practices among mothers with children aged 6–23 months in rural farming communities in Geita.

Methods

Study setting

The study was conducted in Geita region, a predominantly farming area in northwestern Tanzania. Despite relatively good crop harvests, child undernutrition remains high,^{11 12} with a stunting prevalence of 39% compared with the 30% national average.¹¹ This paradox of food security alongside poor feeding practices made Geita an appropriate setting for the study.

Study design

A phenomenology study design was employed to explore mothers’ lived experiences and perceptions related to the household caregiving and farming responsibilities and how these influence complementary feeding practices. This design was appropriate for capturing how mothers interpret and make sense of balancing childcare and agricultural labour within daily lives.18,20 The phenomenology study design enabled an in-depth understanding of how household dynamics and farming-related demands shape complementary feeding practices in rural farming communities.18,20

Study participants and sampling

The study targeted mothers of children aged 6–23 months in rural farming communities. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 24 mothers who engaged in farming and had a child within the target age group as recommended.^{18 19 21} Data were collected through seven in-depth interviews (IDIs) and two focus group discussions (FGDs), with sample size guided by the principle of data saturation.^{22 23} One of the FGDs had eight participants while the other had nine participants. The selection criteria were mothers of a child aged 6–23 months whose household engaged in farming as the main economic activity. We engaged community leaders to identify and select the participants’ potential households from where participants were selected.

Data collection methods and instruments

Data were collected using FGDs and IDIs for comprehensive understanding of the topic. The use of both IDIs and FGDs allowed for methodological triangulation, enabling in-depth exploration of individual lived experiences, collective norms and shared practices related to complementary feeding within the community. An interview guide and a discussion guide (online supplemental file 1) were used to facilitate the IDIs and FGDs respectively. These sessions were conducted in Kiswahili and audio-recorded. The interview guide covered the mothers’ experiences and perceptions regarding complementary feeding practices. The interviews were led by the principal investigator with the assistance of a trained research assistant, who served as the note-taker. The duration of the IDIs ranged from 32 to 58 min while FGDs took 68 and 88 min. Prior to the main data collection, the interview guide was pretested through two IDIs to assess the tool’s ability to collect the desired data and evaluate the sequencing of the questions as recommended in conducting qualitative study.²⁴

Data management and analysis

The audio recordings from the FGDs and IDIs were transferred to a password protected computer after every session. The audios were transcribed verbatim within 24 hours after the interviews as recommended.^{19 21 25} The transcripts were then translated to English and checked against the original recordings for accuracy. Process notes taken by the note-taker during data collection aided in transcription and served as a valuable resource for writing memos about the dataset, as well as capturing important insights emerging from the data.

Thematic analysis and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) were used to analyse the data with the help of Atlas.ti version 9 software for qualitative analysis as used in similar investigations.²⁶ Thematic analysis was used to systematically identify and organise the recurring patterns and themes across participants’ accounts of complementary feeding practices.²⁷ The iterative thematic analysis was done using the six steps framework suggested by Braun and Clarke.²⁷ Researchers first familiarised themselves with the data through transcription and repeated reading, then inductively generated and iteratively refined codes in Atlas.ti, grouped related codes into themes, reviewed and defined themes for coherence and distinctiveness and finally structured the presentation of findings using exported code reports from the software.

The IPA complemented this approach by enabling deeper interpretation of mothers’ lived experiences and meanings attached to maternal care giving and farming responsibilities. Consistent with the principles of IPA, the analysis began with an idiographic, case-by-case examination of each transcript to understand how individual mothers experienced and made sense of balancing caregiving and agricultural work.¹⁹ Each interview was initially analysed independently before patterns were explored across cases. The IPA allowed interpretative engagement with participants’ narratives through a process of double hermeneutics, whereby participants attempted to make sense of their experiences while the researchers interpreted these accounts to understand the underlying meanings related to complementary feeding practices.^{19 28}

During the coding process, meaningful segments from the data were highlighted, quoted and coded inductively as done in phenomenological analysis.^{19 28} Both descriptive and interpretative comments were recorded during this stage to capture participants’ language, contextual meanings and emerging analytic insights. Codes with similar messages were then grouped to form categories and themes as relevantly done in thematic analysis.²⁷ The coding process went hand in hand with memo writing in the Atlas.ti software. Analytic memos were used to document reflections, evolving interpretations and connections between individual cases and broader thematic patterns. A codebook was created using the inductive approach containing the codes and themes that emerge from the data. The final themes are presented with the direct quotes in the results as recommended.^{19 21 25}

Trustworthiness

To ensure the rigour of this qualitative study, the trustworthiness was ensured by adhering to the criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability as recommended.^{21 25} Credibility was enhanced by triangulation of data from the FGDs and IDIs, and sharing of initial findings to two study participants for them to check and ensure their perspectives are correctly presented/interpreted as recommended.²¹ The research team had prior experience in maternal and child nutrition research in rural Tanzanian settings, which might have shaped both their sensitivity to contextual issues and potential preconceptions about caregiving and farming roles. To address this, ongoing reflexive discussions and memo writing were conducted throughout data collection and analysis to critically examine how researchers’ assumptions and interactions with participants may have influenced interpretation of the findings. To ensure transferability, the descriptions of the study setting, participant characteristics and contextual factors have been provided to allow for applicability in similar rural farming communities. Detailed procedures of data collection and analysis procedures have been provided to ensure consistency and dependability of the findings.

Results

Demographic characteristics of participants

The study engaged 24 mothers (7 participated in the IDIs and 17 participated in the FGDs), who had a mean age of 30.1 years, the youngest was 21 years old while the oldest was 42 years old. In terms of parity, more than half of the mothers (58.3%, n=14) had four or more children, while 37.5% (n=9) had two or three children. Only one participant was primipara. Regarding marital status, the majority (87.5%, n=21) were currently married, while the remaining participants were either separated or no longer in marital unions. In terms of education, the majority (58.3%, n=14) had primary school education, while 25% (n=6) had no formal education, and 16.7% (n=4) had secondary school education.

Household factors influencing complementary feeding practices

The analysis generated five interrelated themes that describe the mothers’ perceptions on how complementary feeding practices are situated within competing household roles, farming obligations and prevailing social expectations in the community. Farming emerged as a cross-cutting context within which several household-level themes were identified, namely: the dual burden of maternal caregiving and farming obligations, the practice of carrying children and prepared foods to the farms, limited paternal involvement in child feeding, reliance on elder siblings for childcare, fatigue resulting from prolonged farm work and fear of judgement or informal sanctions for late arrival at the farm. Table 1 portrays a summary of the themes.

Table 1. Summary table of themes.

Verbatim quote (data extract)	Codes	Final theme
“As a mother… you must juggle both roles. Feeding the child and working in the farm go hand in hand.”	Dual roles; juggling caregiving and farming; competing responsibilities	Maternal responsibility and farming obligations
“I’m forced to prepare something quick… sometimes not as nutritious, and carry it with me.”	Time constraints; rushed meal preparation; reduced food quality	Maternal responsibility and farming obligations
“I prepare porridge early… carry the porridge with me… give them some porridge right there in the field.”	Early preparation; carrying porridge; on-site feeding at farm	Carrying children and porridge to the farms
“The routine… prepare porridge quickly… not enough to fully satisfy them.”	Multitasking chores; hurried cooking; insufficient feeding	Carrying children and porridge to the farms
“They might leave the child with another child… may not stir it properly.”	Sibling caregiving; inadequate supervision; missed feeding	Child care by elder siblings
“You come from the farm… don’t feel like cooking… cook something quick.”	Physical exhaustion; convenience-based meals; reduced motivation	Fatigue due to prolonged farm work
“You’re met with judgment… you end up just leaving early with the kids and giving leftovers.”	Social pressure; fear of criticism; prioritising farm arrival	Fear of judgement and sanction for late arrival to the farm
“The majority of fathers don’t stay home… participation is quite limited.”	Low paternal involvement; maternal burden; gendered caregiving	Limited paternal involvement in complementary feeding

Maternal responsibility and farming obligations

The analysis of data revealed that the dual burden of household and farming responsibilities was linked to complementary feeding practices among mothers in these rural farming communities. The expectation for mothers to simultaneously manage caregiving and contribute labour to the farm presented a barrier to adequate, consistent and nutritious complementary feeding. Participants consistently reported that mothers in this community were required to handle both farming activities and caregiving, often without adequate support from the family. One FGD participant summarised this intersection of roles:

As a mother in this community, you’re expected to contribute both in the home and in the farm. There’s no clear separation; you must juggle both roles. Feeding the child and working in the farm go hand in hand. (FGD participant)

The mothers’ obligation in farming with minimal support from their family left mothers with limited time available in the morning to prepare food for their children. The daily demands of agricultural work forced mothers to rush through meal preparation or entirely forego it, which negatively affected the quality and consistency of complementary feeding for their children. Participants consistently explained that their farming schedules left little or no time to prepare nutritious meals, and also limited the mother’s ability to personally ensure the child eats well. One mother from the FGDs expressed her experience:

Truly, farming activities affect how we feed our children. If I were to stay home, I’d have more time to prepare the right kind of porridge and other complementary foods. I could ensure the porridge is thick enough, contains groundnuts or other nutrients, and that it’s cooked well. But when I have to go to the farm, I’m forced to prepare something quick, sometimes not as nutritious, and carry it with me. Or I leave the food with the person watching the child (FGD participant).

Carrying children and porridge to the farms

Due to the demanding nature of subsistence farming in these rural communities, mothers often lacked time to stay home and prepare or serve meals throughout the day. Instead, they developed adaptive strategies to ensure their children were fed while they worked in the fields. A common practice was mothers preparing porridge early in the morning and carrying it in bottles to the farm, allowing feeding to occur on-site as the mother handles both farming obligations and child care. One of the participants shared her experience:

Usually, I wake up very early in the morning, and I prepare porridge for the child. If I’m going to the farm, I carry the porridge with me. If the child cries while we’re at the farm, I give them some porridge right there in the field. Sometimes, we work until as late as five in the evening. Only after returning home do I get time to cook a proper meal. (FGD participant)

The rush to meet both caregiving and farm demands increased the pressure to mothers on preparing the complementary foods, resulting in limited attention to nutritional adequacy. One mother explained this narrating her daily routine:

The routine during the rainy season is like this: in the morning, you have to wake up early, prepare water, clean the house, wash the dishes. Then you put a small pot on the fire, even if that porridge won’t turn out as good as I would normally make it, I still try. While I’m stirring the porridge, I’m also doing other chores quickly so that I can go to the farm. I give the child at least a little porridge, not enough to fully satisfy them, but just something. (IDI participant).

Limited paternal involvement in complementary feeding

Despite the shared parenting role, the involvement of fathers in complementary feeding was consistently reported to be low, often limited to verbal encouragement or passive presence in the household. One participant highlighted the limited physical and practical contribution of fathers in child feeding:

The majority of fathers don’t stay home. A father will wake up in the morning and go to his work. He might come back during lunch, or sometimes not return until evening. So, the father’s participation is quite limited. Even if he tries to emphasise in the morning that the child should eat, saying his participation is significant wouldn’t be accurate. Most spend their time on work here and there, trying to earn a living. (FGD participant)

Child care by elder siblings

Mothers reported that the demands of agricultural labour required them to leave early in the morning, often before they could adequately prepare or provide food for their young children. In such cases, infants and toddlers were left in the care of slightly older siblings who may not have had the knowledge or attentiveness needed to maintain appropriate complementary feeding routines. One participant clearly illustrated this challenge:

You’ll find some people draw water quickly in the morning and go to the farm – maybe without even preparing porridge. They might leave the child with another child. That older child is then told to stir porridge for the younger one. But they may not stir it properly, or maybe not at all. Then the child ends up eating leftover food from yesterday – the porridge wasn’t made, wasn’t drunk, and they have to wait until the mother comes back from the farm to either breastfeed or prepare food. So, you find that many children don’t get that morning complementary food… (IDI participant).

Nevertheless, a few participants described more positive experiences, where they made deliberate arrangements to ensure proper child care and feeding in their absence. One participant shared her experience:

If I have a schedule of leaving the child with others, I leave them with someone responsible – someone who knows when it’s time to feed the child again. By the time I come back, the child has no problem; they’re playing with others and have already eaten. (IDI Participant).

Fatigue due to prolonged farm work

Fatigue resulting from prolonged and physically demanding farm work was revealed in the analysis as a barrier to optimal complementary feeding. Mothers described how exhaustion after a long day in the fields led to compromised meal preparation for their children. In such cases, food choices were driven by the need for convenience rather than nutritional quality:

Fatigue can really hit you. You come from the farm, and you feel like, ‘I don’t even feel like cooking today.’ All these thoughts run through your mind. You end up abandoning the plan you had for lunch. You just cook something quick so that you can rest. You really do cook just to get it over with, thinking, ‘Let them eat whatever; I don’t know about tomorrow and the day after.’ You’re always going back to the farm, and it’s only during the dry season that you may have time to sit and rest (IDI participant).

Fear of judgement and sanction for late arrival to the farm

In these rural farming communities, social norms around work participation strongly influenced maternal feeding practices. Mothers reported a pervasive fear of judgement or informal sanctions from family members if they arrived late to the farm due to time spent preparing food for their children in the morning. This fear created tension between caregiving responsibilities and agricultural expectations, pushing some mothers to deprioritise morning meal preparation in order to avoid criticism or consequences. One participant in a focus group explained:

No one wants to stay back just to prepare food. Even if you stayed behind to wash dishes, when you finally make it to the farm, you’re met with judgement, people asking why you’re late and leaving you the hardest part of the work. So, you wonder: if I cook today, will I even manage tomorrow? You end up just leaving early with the kids and giving them “kipolo” (Left over food). (FGD participant).

Discussion

Complementary feeding practices may be largely influenced within the household setting, where decisions about food preparation, distribution and feeding occur. As the primary environment in which young children are introduced to foods beyond breastmilk, households may play a central role in determining both the quality and adequacy of complementary feeding. Household factors such as availability of diverse foods, caregiving practices, decision-making dynamics and socio-cultural norms are therefore critical in influencing whether recommended feeding practices are achieved. This study explored how these contextual household mechanisms shape complementary feeding in rural farming communities, offering insights into the opportunities and barriers faced by families in ensuring optimal child nutrition.

In this study, mothers in the rural farming communities in Geita experience a dual burden of caregiving and agricultural obligation, with limited support from family members. This pattern suggests a structural constraint whereby daily agricultural schedules shape the temporal organisation of childcare and feeding routines. Resulting in mothers experiencing significant time constraints in the early morning due to farming responsibilities demanding urgency to reach the farms in early morning. These time pressures appear to reorganise feeding practices toward quick, convenient options and reduced supervision, reflecting adaptive responses to competing demands rather than simple neglect. These constraints limited their ability to prepare nutritious meals or personally supervise their children’s feeding. While women’s contributions to agriculture are critical for household food security and income,¹⁴ the burden of balancing caregiving and farm work may compromise the consistency and quality of complementary feeding.^{14 29}

The necessity of managing both maternal responsibilities and farm obligations simultaneously stems from the gendered division of labour common across many sub-Saharan African contexts.^{14 29 30} This division of labour operates as an underlying mechanism shaping how responsibilities are prioritised within households.³⁰ While both men and women have multiple responsibilities, men tend to perform their tasks sequentially, whereas women undertake domestic and productive work concurrently.²⁹ Such concurrent role expectations create a context of ‘time poverty’, which constrains mothers’ capacity to engage in recommended feeding practices despite awareness of their importance. This forces mothers to make difficult trade-offs between meeting the nutritional needs of their children and fulfilling labour-intensive farming obligations.²⁹ Unlike other forms of maternal labour such as petty trade or home-based income activities, subsistence farming requires early departure from home, prolonged physical presence in distant fields and adherence to seasonal and communal work rhythms that are less flexible.³¹ This physical separation from the household, combined with the intensity and time-bound nature of farm work, uniquely limits opportunities for responsive feeding and close supervision compared with more home-based or flexible livelihoods.³¹

In pressure to handle both farming and child-caring duties, mothers ended up taking their children with them as they went to the farms in the early morning. To allow feeding to happen at the farms, mothers developed a tendency of carrying porridge or yesterday‘s leftover meals. However, the practice of carrying children and porridge to the farm may compromise the quality of feeding, as the farming environment may often limit mothers’ ability to observe proper hygiene practices during feeding. This finding aligns with the evidence from rural Rukwa, where 60.6% of mothers were found to bring their children under 2 years of age to the fields, and 86.7% of those children were fed primarily on uji.^{13 32} Similar patterns have been documented in Rwanda, where complementary feeding and child care were reported to directly compete with agricultural duties.²⁶ In the same vein, a recent systematic review on the determinants of sub-optimal complementary feeding in low and middle-income countries found that maternal and caregiver characteristics have been consistently reported to influence complementary feeding practices in these settings.³⁰

Women’s engagement in prolonged and physically demanding farm work contributed to fatigue, which served as a barrier to optimal complementary feeding. Exhaustion after long hours in the field often led to compromised meal preparation, with mothers lacking the energy or time to prepare diverse and nutritious foods for their children. Similar patterns have been reported in rural Rukwa, where women were found to spend up to ten hours per day and more days in the year working in the fields during peak farming seasons.^{13 14 32 33} Hillary and Mbwana¹⁴ further reported that rural women in Tanzania bear a substantial workload, toiling for an average of 13 hours daily. compared with men, women in these communities perform a wider range of tasks and spend longer hours working.¹⁴ In such circumstances, food choices may be driven by convenience and speed rather than nutritional value, contributing to suboptimal complementary feeding practices.

In these rural farming communities, social norms surrounding agricultural participation exerted significant pressure on maternal caregiving behaviours in relation to complementary feeding. These norms appear to function as social regulatory mechanisms that prioritise timely farm attendance over early-morning childcare tasks, thereby shaping how mothers allocate their limited time. In this study, mothers described a strong fear of judgement or informal sanctions from family members if they arrived late to the farm due to time spent preparing meals for their children in the morning. Such anticipated social scrutiny may operate as a behavioural driver that requires conformity to productive labour expectations, even when these conflict with recommended feeding practices. As a result, some mothers felt compelled to deprioritise morning meal preparation, potentially compromising their children’s nutritional intake. This tension might be due to gender roles and limited awareness among other household members, especially fathers, regarding the importance of age-appropriate complementary feeding.^{34 35} The limited engagement of fathers in nutrition-related knowledge spaces may further sustain these norms, reducing shared responsibility for child feeding within households. Because men often do not attend child health clinics, where nutrition education is typically delivered, they may not fully appreciate the value of timely and nutritious feeding.35,37

These structural and temporal factors, such as early departure for the fields, long working hours and the dual burden of productive and caregiving responsibilities, mediate the relationship between food availability and feeding quality. Such that, even in households that are technically food-secure, complementary feeding may remain suboptimal when practical constraints and caregiving burdens dictate mothers’ daily routines.^{12 31} Our findings indicate that mothers often prioritise convenience and time efficiency over nutritional quality, largely due to competing demands of agricultural labour and childcare. For instance, mothers frequently relied on quick-to-prepare foods or leftovers, despite having access to diverse ingredients at home, because farming schedules and time constraints limited opportunities for careful meal preparation and supervision.

Limitation of the study

This study has several methodological limitations that should be considered when interpreting the findings. First, the qualitative design and purposive sampling of mothers from rural farming communities in Geita limit the transferability of the findings to other geographical or socio-cultural contexts. Although the study aimed for depth of understanding rather than generalisability, the experiences reported may not reflect those of mothers in non-farming households, urban settings or regions with different livelihood structures. In addition, the relatively small sample size, while adequate for phenomenological inquiry and guided by data saturation, may have constrained the range of perspectives captured.

Second, the data relied on self-reported experiences collected through IDIs and FGDs, which may be subject to recall and social desirability biases, especially when discussing socially valued practices such as child feeding and caregiving. The presence of other participants in FGDs may also have influenced the openness of some responses. Furthermore, the study primarily captured mothers’ perspectives and did not include fathers, elder siblings or other household decision-makers, whose views could have provided a more comprehensive understanding of intra-household dynamics influencing complementary feeding.

Third, the influence of the researchers’ positionality on data collection and interpretation. The research team consisted of investigators with prior experience in maternal and child nutrition in rural Tanzanian settings, and their gender, expectations and familiarity with local cultural norms may have shaped participants’ responses or the focus of discussions. While reflexive practices, including memo writing and team discussions, were employed to identify and mitigate these influences, the possibility remains that researcher perspectives could have subtly affected the analysis and interpretation of the findings.

Conclusion

The dual burden of farming and caregiving highlights how household factors critically shape complementary feeding practices. Within the household, time poverty, maternal fatigue and pressure to meet farming responsibilities often limit the ability of mothers to consistently prepare nutritious meals. In response, feeding responsibilities are frequently delegated to older siblings, and families resort to convenient but less nutritious food options. Limited involvement of fathers and insufficient support from extended family further compound these challenges, leaving mothers to manage competing demands with little assistance. These household dynamics; division of labour, caregiving roles and intra-household support systems were reported to influence the consistency, quality and adequacy of complementary feeding in rural farming communities.

Recommendations

The findings suggest the need for context-specific, gender-responsive interventions that actively promote male involvement in household and caregiving responsibilities in these settings. At the community level, structured father-focused education sessions, couple-based nutrition counselling during antenatal and child health clinics and engagement of male community leaders could be implemented to promote shared responsibility for child feeding and domestic tasks. In addition, community-based behaviour change communication strategies should explicitly address prevailing gender norms that position complementary feeding as solely a maternal duty. Equitable caregiving practices within rural farming households should be promoted. Such targeted approaches may help reduce maternal workload, improve time allocation for food preparation and ultimately strengthen complementary feeding practices.

Data availability statement

Data are available upon reasonable request.