Development and pilot testing of the Baby-Feed web application for healthcare professionals and parents to improve infant diets.

BACKGROUND: Diet is key in preventing rapid infant weight gain but adherence to infant dietary recommendations is difficult to follow and low in adherence. OBJECTIVE: Develop and pilot test the "Baby-Feed" web application for parents and healthcare professionals to easily evaluate infant diets and provide immediate feedback to promote adherence to current infant dietary recommendations. METHODS: Baby-Feed was developed following the ADDIE (analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation) model. It was pilot tested among two clinicians and 25 parents of infants aged 4 to 12 months that had a scheduled well-child visit at a community health center in Miami. After 2 weeks of using Baby-Feed, parents completed a feasibility, acceptability, satisfaction, and usability questionnaire. Parents and clinicians were also asked to suggest improvements. Descriptive analysis included frequency and median (25th, 75th percentiles). One-sample binomial tests was used to evaluate if feasible, acceptable, satisfactory, and usable. RESULTS: Twenty-three parents completed the evaluation (all were mothers), 31.0 (26.0, 33.0) years-old, 96% Hispanic, 83% had ≥ high school education, with 1.5 (1.0, 2.0) children. Infants' age was 6.1 (4.0, 9.0) months and 57% were boys. Binomial tests indicated that most parents (greater than87%) agreed that Baby-Feed was easy to use, learn, quick, would use it again, rated it as 4/5 stars. They used it greater than 1 times per week (p < 0.001). Parents suggested improving the visuals (more icons, colors, and pictures) and images of portion sizes, highlighting missing fields, being able to view/open it on their phones, and adding recipes and more information. The two clinicians (a pediatrician and a physician assistant) suggested to be open-access and to add more infant nutrition information. CONCLUSION: Baby-Feed was feasible, usable, satisfactory, and acceptable. It could be used as a tool to easily evaluate infant diets in the healthcare setting to provide immediate feedback.

Perceptions of the impact of a multidose human-milk fortifier on human-milk preparation practices in United States neonatal intensive care units: A survey of nutrition care team members.

BACKGROUND: In 2020, a multidose human-milk fortifier (MDHMF) was designed to improve the process of human-milk (HM) fortification. The bottle of MDHMF (5.5 oz, 163 ml) allows aseptic removal of HMF in a precise measure. This survey aimed to examine the experience of nutrition care team (NCT) members who used the MDHMF in a hospital setting. METHODS: A survey link (Qualtrics XM) was sent to NCT leaders (N = 108) at hospitals who participated in an evaluation of the MDHMF from June 1, 2020, through April 30, 2021. The NCT leaders sent the survey to members at their prospective hospitals (n = 344). The investigators did not know the identities of the recipients of the survey and collected no identifying information on respondents. Respondents were asked to evaluate their experience with the MDHMF compared with their previous practice. RESULTS: The majority of respondents (n = 63, 72%) reported that the MDHMF improved their HM preparation practices and was better than their previous practice for reducing the time to prepare (n = 33, 71.7%), ensuring the accuracy of fortified HM (n = 32, 69.6%), ensuring aseptic preparation (n = 24, 52.2%), reducing HM waste (n = 27, 58.7%), and being easy to use (n = 30, 65.2%). Those responsible for evaluating nutrition status answered that the MDHMF was the same for feeding tolerance (n = 41, 58.6%), weight gain (n = 47, 67.1%), head growth (n = 56, 81.2%), and length growth (n = 53, 76.8%). CONCLUSION: US neonatal intensive care unit NCT members perceived that the MDHMF resulted in improved HM preparation practices while maintaining growth and tolerance.