The Montreal Children's Hospital Feeding Scale: A brief bilingual screening tool for identifying feeding problems
Maria Ramsay, Chantal Martel, Mafalda Porporino, Catherine Zygmuntowicz, Maria Ramsay, Chantal Martel, Mafalda Porporino, Catherine Zygmuntowicz
Abstract
Objective: To establish the psychometric characteristics of a newly developed, brief bilingual 14-item parent report tool (The Montreal Children's Hospital Feeding Scale [MCH-Feeding Scale]) designed to identify feeding problems in children six months to six years of age.
Methods: To establish construct validity, 198 mothers of children visiting community paediatrician's offices (normative sample) and 174 mothers of children referred to a feeding clinic (clinical sample) completed the scale. Test-retest reliability was obtained by the re-administration of the MCH-Feeding Scale to 25 children in each sample.
Results: Excellent construct validity was confirmed when the mean [± SD] scores of the normative and clinical samples were compared (32.65±12.73 versus 60.48±13.04, respectively; P<0.01). Test-retest reliabilities were high for both groups (normative r=0.845, clinical r=0.92).
Conclusion: The MCH-Feeding Scale can be used by paediatricians and other health care professionals for quick identification of feeding problems.
Keywords: Assessment of health care needs; Child; Failure to thrive; Feeding and eating disorders of childhood; Feeding behaviour; Infant.
Source: PubMed