Preliminary Ethnographic Analysis of Infant Complementary Foods in a Peruvian Quechua Community

This study examines infant feeding beliefs and practices in a rural Peruvian Quechua community. The aim was to assess which infant foods are considered culturally meaningful, and if concordance exists between beliefs and practices. Mothers were asked to free-list their child's "actual" first foods (<i>n</i> = 85), then to free-list "ideal" infant foods (<i>n</i> = 87). Food lists were analyzed for cultural salience. Mothers listed 43 foods; four (potato, mazamorra, egg, and liver) were culturally salient on both lists. Some discordance was found between beliefs and practices. Culturally salient "ideal" foods were animal-source and protein-iron rich, whereas salient "actual" foods were plant-source and carbohydrate-based.