Child practitioners’ gaze during infant mealtime assistance: experience-related patterns in visual attention and sequential gaze dynamics in a Japanese ECEC setting

Visual monitoring of infants during mealtimes is crucial for safe, responsive caregiving; however, the role of professional experience in shaping caregivers’ gaze strategies remains largely unexamined. This study examined gaze behavior during one-on-one mealtime assistance for infants aged 7–12 months. A total of 14 female Japanese childcare practitioners (M = 7.57 years of experience, SD = 7.12) from seven Tokyo daycare centers (ECEC) wore eye-tracking glasses and 12 practitioners completed a perceived difficulty questionnaire. Beta regression analysis revealed a trend suggesting that greater experience may predict increased gaze allocation to the infant's mouth, whereas less experience showed a trend toward higher perceived difficulty. Markov chain analysis revealed that experienced caregivers were less likely to shift their gaze from the mouth to the face, indicating sustained anticipatory monitoring. Although the beta regression findings should be interpreted with caution given the small sample size (N = 14), the convergence of static and dynamic analyses tentatively suggests that experience may shape a qualitatively distinct gaze strategy that encompasses where and how practitioners sequence visual attention, with implications for caregiver training and the quality of infant feeding.