Representing infant feeding: content analysis of British media portrayals of bottle feeding and breast feeding

Henderson, Lesley; Kitzinger, Jenny; Green, Josephine

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7270.1196

Cited by 130 publications

(116 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

102

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Many children and adults have little if any exposure to breastfeeding 17 , 16 which may reflect changes in family structure and increased bottle-feeding in the older generation 23 . The "norm" of artificial feeding is reinforced by media representations of bottle-feeding and by the sale of toy dolls with accompanying bottles 24 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

'Breakfast, lunch and dinner': Attitudes to infant feeding amongst children in a Scottish primary school. A qualitative focus group study

Russell

Richards

Jones

et al. 2004

Health Education Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: To describe the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about infant feeding amongst a group of Scottish primary school children.Design: Qualitative focus group study.Setting: A single primary school which serves a mixed socio-econmic area in the north of Scotland.Method: Parents gave demographic details about their family, and information about whether their children had been breastfed. Twenty three children, aged 5 and 6, took part in 3 focus groups which were conducted by 2 facilitators, according to a predetermined topic guide. Focus group data were supplemented with analyses of children's drawings and with fieldnotes.Results: Children generally spoke of and drew pictures of bottle-feeding. Their lack of everyday language for breastfeeding suggested that breastfeeding was not a 'taken-forgranted' activity. The repeated reference to adult meal patterns and to equipment suggested that the children have a mechanistic and confused idea of what breastfeeding involves. Their difficulties conceptualizing night feeds and feeding in public places suggested that the children viewed breastfeeding as a private activity, permissible only in certain contexts. Children had vivid recall of TV images of infant feeding.Conclusions: Despite the observation that breastfeeding was not generally perceived as a natural activity, our findings suggest that primary school children are interested in infant feeding and that they can be engaged in and educated about it as young as 6 years old. Larger studies are needed to further explore attitudes to infant-feeding.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

'Breakfast, lunch and dinner': Attitudes to infant feeding amongst children in a Scottish primary school. A qualitative focus group study

Russell

Richards

Jones

et al. 2004

Health Education Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In general, the entire environment needs to be supportive and marked by mutual respect and acceptance both within and beyond the classroom.' (Caine and Caine, 1991) The importance of supportive environments, where personal and vicarious experiences can be discussed, has been widely recommended for breastfeeding education for midwives (Dykes, 2003, Henderson et al, 2000 and would seem equally valid as a learning environment for student midwives.…”

Section: A Supportive Learning Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alien knowledge: Preparing student midwives for learning about infant feeding—Education practice at a UK university

Angell

Taylor

2013

Nurse Education Today

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Infant feeding education forms a key element in undergraduate midwifery education in the UK. Students must be prepared to provide women with support and information to make appropriate health choices for themselves and their infants. However, student midwives may already have developed opinions about infant feeding prior to commencing a midwifery education programme. The education literature suggests that existing attitudes may present a barrier to learning for some students. This particularly applies to learning in relation to senstive or emotionally laden subjects. A review of the literature was undertaken to identify potential teaching approaches which might help students to overcome barriers to learning. Following this the evidence was utilised at a UK university to develop activities which prepare student midwives for effective learning around infant feeding. Students enrolled in the midwifery education programme were introduced to a number of activities aimed at encouraging them to accommodate unfamiliar ideas or 'alien knowledge'. These included placing students in situations which challenged their ideas, as well as engaging in group discussions and reflective exercises. The impact of these educational intervantions was identified through formative and summtive assessment, and through evaluation of the teaching strategy at the end of the programme. This demonstrated that, amongst those students with previously negative attittudes towards infant feeding, there was a move towards more positive attitudes and a greater confidence in providing evidence based information to parents.

show abstract

“…Measures of the effects of advice have much greater practical application as modifiable risk factors than measuring the age of the introduction of formula. Other risk factors include subtle marketing techniques targeted at paediatricians and general practitioners by infant formula companies 23 . Although marketing influences are difficult to quantify, inclusion of the receipt of advice or awareness of marketing messages to complementary feed in a multivariate model would be sound in that these factors are removed from the causal pathway.…”

Section: Influential Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motherhood meets epidemiology: measuring risk factors for breast–feeding cessation

Peat

Allen

Nguyen

et al. 2004

Public Health Nutr.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: To examine statistical models that have been used to predict the cessation of breast-feeding. Setting: In nutritional epidemiology, a knowledge of risk factors that lead to breastfeeding cessation is essential to promote optimal infant health by increasing or sustaining breast-feeding rates. However, a number of methodological issues complicate the measurement of such risk factors. It is important when building multivariate models that variables entered into the model are not intervening variables, factors on the causal pathway or surrogate outcomes. Inclusion of these types of variable can lead to inaccurate models and biased results. A factor often cited to predict breast-feeding is 'intention to breast-feed' prior to the birth of the infant, although this factor is directly on the causal decision-making pathway. Another factor often cited is the age of introduction of formula feeding, which is actually part of the outcome variable because formula feeding defines the difference between full, complementary and no breast-feeding. Rather than include these as risk factors in multivariate models, factors removed from the causal pathway such as influences of educational practices, including advice to complementary feed, and beliefs and attitudes of families and health-care practitioners should be measured. Conclusions: The accurate quantification of modifiable risk factors is essential for designing public health education campaigns that are effective in sustaining or increasing breast-feeding duration.Keywords Breast-feeding epidemiology Breast-feeding promotion Infant health Risk factors Statistical methodsIn this paper, we use the following definitions:. Full breast-feeding to describe either exclusive breastfeeding, i.e. infants who receive breast milk as their only source of nutrition except for vitamin/mineral supplements or medicines, or predominant breast-feeding, i.e. infants who are breast-fed and receive liquids (water and water-based drinks, fruit juice, oral rehydration solution), ritual fluids and vitamin/mineral supplements or medicines, but who do not receive infant formula or solid or semi-solid foods. . Complementary breast-feeding to describe infants who receive breast milk but who also receive infant formula or solid or semi-solid foods. . No breast-feeding to describe infants who receive no breast milk.A large body of evidence for risk factors that are associated with the initiation and duration of breast-feeding has been reviewed 1 . However, a number of key issues complicate the interpretation of risk factor evidence. One problem that sometimes arises is that methodologically sound approaches to building multivariate statistical models are not always used. An issue that is frequently overlooked is that any variable considered in a model must be a potentially predictive factor but must not be an intervening variable, a factor on the causal pathway or a surrogate outcome 2,3 . The inclusion of these types of variable in multivariate models can bias measures of effect and mask...

show abstract

Representing infant feeding: content analysis of British media portrayals of bottle feeding and breast feeding

Cited by 130 publications

References 9 publications

'Breakfast, lunch and dinner': Attitudes to infant feeding amongst children in a Scottish primary school. A qualitative focus group study

'Breakfast, lunch and dinner': Attitudes to infant feeding amongst children in a Scottish primary school. A qualitative focus group study

Alien knowledge: Preparing student midwives for learning about infant feeding—Education practice at a UK university

Motherhood meets epidemiology: measuring risk factors for breast–feeding cessation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About