Family-Inclusive Interventions Supporting Complementary Feeding for Children Aged 6-23 Months: A Scoping Review of Alignment with Family-Centered Care Principles

Suboptimal complementary-feeding practices remain an important concern for child nutrition and growth. WHO and UNICEF guidance emphasizes appropriate complementary feeding for children aged 6-23 months, including dietary adequacy, responsive feeding, and supportive caregiving. Because many interventions primarily target mothers, broader family involvement may be underrepresented. This scoping review aimed to map the characteristics, implementation strategies, and reported outcomes of family-inclusive complementary-feeding interventions and examined their alignment with established Family-Centered Care (FCC) principles. The review followed Joanna Briggs Institute guidance and PRISMA-ScR recommendations. PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL via EBSCOhost, and ScienceDirect were searched for English- or Indonesian-language primary intervention or programme-evaluation studies with extractable quantitative data published from January 2016 to May 3, 2026. Eligibility was structured using the Population, Concept, and Context framework, and included publications were synthesized descriptively and mapped against established FCC principles. Eleven publications representing 10 underlying studies or trials met the eligibility criteria. Information Sharing and Participation were evident in all 11 publications, Dignity and Respect in eight, and explicit Collaboration in two. Across the 10 underlying studies or trials, four recurring family-inclusive patterns were identified: paternal engagement, family empowerment and teamwork, responsive parenting, and community ecosystem integration. These were interpreted as evidence-informed descriptive categories rather than validated FCC dimensions. Reported outcomes were heterogeneous, with favorable findings for selected feeding, caregiver, parenting, growth, and developmental outcomes alongside null or mixed findings. Family-inclusive interventions commonly incorporated information sharing and active caregiver participation, whereas explicit partnership-oriented Collaboration was less frequently reported. Future research should examine how FCC principles can be intentionally operationalized and evaluated in relation to implementation, sustainability, and contextual adaptation. This conceptual mapping may inform future intervention development without implying comparative effectiveness.