Table 4.
Recommendations for intervention planning based on analysis of mothers’ comments
| Infant behavioral target | Recommendations for intervention planning |
|---|---|
| Prolonged, exclusive breastfeeding | Incorporate prenatal education to set realistic expectations around challenges and demands of breastfeeding → develop strategies to manage anticipated barriers |
| Establish both professional and peer breastfeeding support after birth to manage problems and normalize issues | |
| Worksite support is needed, including room to pump and allowance of time in which to do it | |
| Delayed introduction of solid foods | Tailor messages to feeding style; explain rationale for delaying |
| Acknowledge infant’s size with regard to timing of introduction | |
| Ask mothers what might incline them to introduce solids early | |
| Responsiveness to hunger/satiety cues | Emphasize the recognition of hunger cues and the reasoning for non-feeding techniques to soothe |
| Ask about feeding practices and respond directly to those that may be indicative of overfeeding | |
| No TV for babies | Address TV time of everyone in the household to minimize infants’ passive exposure while others watch |
| Improve infant sleep | Discuss longer term outcomes of sleep associations and engage mothers in evaluating long term sleep goals and immediate needs |
| Mothers’ behavioral target | Recommendations for intervention planning |
| Avoid fast food | Work with mothers to identify easy, nutritious meal and snack options to have available at home or bring when going out |
| Encourage planning or preparing a day’s food in advance (similar to packing lunch for work), to maintain structure and minimize impulsive eating | |
| Increase fruit and vegetable intake | Help ensure the availability of fruits and vegetables |
| Emphasize value and convenience of frozen vegetables | |
| Encourage having on hand precut or easy-to-grab vegetables and fruits of their liking | |
| Drink water and avoid sugar-sweetened drinks | Facilitate the availability of cold, filtered water |
| Distribute fun water bottles for moms to keep on-hand | |
| Increase physical activity time | Identify local exercise opportunities specifically geared to mothers, as well as fitness centers with childcare available |
| Consider workplace interventions, using the return to work period as an opportunity to take time for oneself and increase activity as a mode of transportation, or on a lunch break, or before/after work | |
| Limit mothers’ TV to 2 h or less | Facilitate thinking of ways to relax other than watching TV |
| Explore the link between mothers’ TV time and infant TV exposure | |
| Increase mothers’ sleep duration | Negotiate with mothers to find a balance between doing chores and tasks while the baby sleeps and getting themselves to sleep earlier |