Strengthening Responsive Feeding Practices: A Mobile Health Application for the Responsive Feeding Practices Assessment Tool (mRFPAT) (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Caregivers play a crucial part in early childhood development. Responsive feeding is an essential aspect of nutrition promotion in early childhood. It has been proven that responsive feeding fosters a strong attachment with the child and enhances their health and development. According to the literature, this feeding method is not highly focused in low- and middle-income countries. An assessment tool for responsive feeding practices focusing on infants has been developed and validated in Sri Lanka. OBJECTIVE This paper aims to discuss the developed mobile health application (mRFPAT) for the currently published responsive feeding practices assessment tool in Sri Lanka. METHODS The hybrid mobile application development platform served as the foundation for creating this mHealth application, and it supports Android and IOS operating systems. NoSQL was used to build the database and implement it using the cloud. The application back end was designed using the java programming language. The mRFPAT can be downloaded through the given link: https://www.mediafire.com/file/z5qib8t4thd4k8v/RFPAT_app_v1.2.1.apk/file The app downloading process and procedures for app use can be viewed at, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrOaKHuDGNQ RESULTS This app has three stages: proactive preparation of the feeding context, attentiveness to the child’s signals and appropriate feeding, and responsive communication. At the end of the questions, the app users are directed to a blog of various helpful resources on responsive feeding, and caregivers can change their infant’s feeding behavior based on the given backing information. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, a mobile version of the responsive feeding assessment tool was introduced to promote nutrition among infants and young children. Interventions can be planned to promote the health and development of infants and young children using the developed mobile app. However, it is better to verify the effectiveness of this mRFPAT for improving nutrition among children as an innovative intervention.