However, an intervention study with healthcare professionals showed that motivational interviewing techniques increased patient

adherence to treatment,23 suggesting that the healthcare professionals’ communication strategy in primary care can be a tool to improve maternal adherence to guidelines on the feeding practices Alectinib mouse of their children. Among the maternal and family characteristics analyzed in this study, family income was the only variable associated with the group of mothers who reported following the healthcare professionals’ guidelines. Several studies that investigated the socioeconomic and demographic factors associated with adherence to healthy eating habits early in life demonstrated associations between adherence and maternal characteristics such as age, education, buy U0126 income, and maternal occupation, but the results differ among the studies, perhaps due to differences among the studied populations.5, 12, 13, 21, 24, 25 and 26 The highest prevalence of recommended practices of BF and complementary feeding were observed

among mothers who followed the healthcare professionals’ guidelines and among those who reported not following the guidelines, but showed concern or consideration regarding the child’s dietary habits. These results confirm the consistency of maternal responses regarding their perception, and suggest that, in the context of primary health care in which this population is treated, adherence to health professional guidelines imply in a positive impact on the feeding behavior of this group, in particular. Furthermore, the best dietary practices were observed when the mother perceived that food was important for the child’s health, which is in agreement with studies that indicate greater effectiveness in intervention programs focused on maternal beliefs, selleck compound attitudes, and subjective norms, covering interactive discussions, preferably with the presence of the family, aiming to prevent possible difficulties and focusing on variables that may be modifiable.9, 14, 27, 28 and 29 Regarding the limitations of the present study, the lack of data on the frequency

and quality of dietary guidelines provided by healthcare professionals to the mothers must be highlighted. Moreover, the mothers’ responses regarding their perception of whether or not they followed healthcare professionals’ guidelines may have been biased in relation to other sources of information on this subject. Another limitation may be based on the mother’s predisposition to respond positively regarding their adherence to dietary practices recommended by healthcare professionals for fear of being judged by the interviewer. This, however, reflects the possibility that the prevalence of mothers who do not follow the healthcare professionals’ guidelines may be even higher than that observed in this study.