Table 4 Representative responses of participants

Feeding practice

1. “I usually prepared food for my child by myself, and tried to add some commercial rice flours a few times, but my child did not like it. I used to boil hand-made noodles, or commercial children noodles, with additional blending of vegetables or meat mince.”

2. “We fed our baby with porridges, steamed eggs, and noodles. In very few cases, we bought baby food. For commercial products, we only added rice flour and biscuits.”

3. “We began to add rice flour when our baby aged 6 months old, and bought him various baby noodles.”

4. “I gradually added yolk, rice flour, fruit puree, and vegetable juice to our baby after 6 months old, with no much difficulty. For fruits and vegetable, we just chopped with knife, and occasionally used food processer.”

5. “I am a full-time mother, and I have no difficulty in preparing baby food.”

Difficulties in CF

1. “The time for preparing food for my child is limited, because we cook for him separately.”

2. “My child used to be very picky.”

3. “Sometimes, my child was attracted by TV program and could not keep eating at the table.”

Influencing factors in complementary feeding

1. “Some of the commercial products were added with many additives to make them attractive to babies. We believe the added stuff harmful.”

2. “The additives in baby food were invisible, so we have no idea how much they have added. I usually cook for my baby by myself.”

3. “I would consider whether the products contain additives and preservatives, when buying rice flours for my child.”

4. “I usually chose those well-known brands and organic products, by considering baby’s personal taste.”

5. One participant strongly stated, “All the food purchased for our baby is imported. We do not consider domestic food at all.” Another participant noted: “The rice flour we bought for our baby are mostly imported.”

Nutrition and health concerns

1. “When having regular physical examination, the general practitioner told us our child calcium deficiency. After that we paid more attention to calcium and added calcium supplement.”

2. One said: “I have no idea about the bioavailability of those added nutrients, given the current amount in the products.”

3. Another mother noted that: “I do not know whether there is an effect of those claimed stuff added in the food.”

4. “I am not sure how much my baby could absorb or digest those claimed nutrients.”

Approaches in getting knowledge of CF

1. “I usually get complementary food information from internet, smart phone, and WeChat. I generally trust those information, and it’s better to have more professional guidance.”

2. One participant said “Face to face lecture given by paediatricians or puericulturists is a good way of getting feeding information, because we could ask specific questions.”

3. One participant noted that “The knowledge should be well structured, systematic, and individualized, because the feeding practices differ by age and person.”