Synchronization of mother-infant feeding behavior

Abstract

In the weaning period, infants are introduced to solid food after being fed solely on milk, which involves a deliberate reorganization of the infant-caregiver feeding interaction. This multiple case study, involving 5 dyads with 10 repeated observations, analyzed its dynamical structure using Cross-Recurrence Quantification Analysis. The results showed that an optimal interaction occurs when the caregiver is leading by roughly 1-2 seconds. During the weaning period, all dyads showed signs of increased synchronization, although there are interesting differences between dyads. These findings indicate that infant-caregiver dyads co-regulate their behavior within a relatively short period.