PONE-D-23-31826Appropriate complementary feeding practice and associated factors among mothers of children aged 6-23 months in Bhimphedi rural municipality of NepalPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. K.C.,

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Naveed Sadiq, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: 1. Line (L) 61-62: WHO recommended to continued breastfeeding up to 2 years of beyond not 12 months as stated. Any comment or justification on author's statement on this matter?

2. L61-65: The statement is not clear. Please paraphrase the statement to be clearer and what are on basis of this statement?

3. L88-89: I would suggest the author to consider to follow and standardised the indicator's name according to WHO Unicef IYCF indicator 2021. 'Introduction of solid, semi-solid or soft food 6-8 months (ISSSF)

4. L113-119: I would recommend the author to elaborate more on the selection of 3 indicators from 17 IYCF WHO IYCF practice's indicators. To justify why choose the three selected indicators and how classified it as Appropriate Complementary Feeding Practices. The term of 'core indicator' was used in WHO IYCF Practices Indicators 2008 and not in WHO IYCF Practices Indicators 2021 as the revised version divided into 3 main indicators (Breastfeeding, Complementary Feeding and Other practices indicator) rather than 2 main indicator in 2008 (Core vs Optional indicators)

As ISSSF become one of the three indicator to determine prevalence of ACFP, how the author analyse data as the ISSSF data is meant for the children aged 6-8 months (age group to assess the indicator). Can the author explain on how author assess this indicator? If the denominator was the children age 6-23 months, author need to reanalyse the data.

5. L141-143: Rephrase in the better way to explain the definition of the topic.

6. L239-240: The indicator was not follow the definition of WHO IYCF Practices Indicator 2021 (ISSSF). If the author do not want to follow the indicator's definition, the author need to explain and elaborate more on this topic.

Figure 1: Fig 1 showed the ISSSF indicator data come from the total respondent which is not follow the WHO guideline to asses the IYCF indicators. I assumed the author used the definition as states at line 141-143 and using the WHO IYCF Indicators for assessing infant and young child feeding practices. Standardise in term of definition is important especially to compare the result among the research on this topic.

All the best

Thank you

Reviewer #2: 1. As per the measure in methodology section, appropriate complementary feeding practice is defined as indicator three of the WHO core IYCF i.e. timely introduction of solid, complementary feeding minimum dietary diversity and minimum meal frequency. But in the result section, appropriate complementary feeding practice and all these indicators presented separately. So be clear about the measurement. If you need any correction, correct both in the abstract result section and main findings.

2. Better to specify the "to address associated factors" in conclusion section of abstract.

3. What is basis for classification of monthly income? Better use any standard basis

4. Found missing figure 1 in results section

5. it would be more clear for reader if you include fig. or table related to descriptive findings i.e. timing of introduction of solid, complementary feeding minimum dietary diversity and minimum meal frequency in results section.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Khairul Hasnan Amali

Reviewer #2: Yes: Gayatri Rai

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PONE-D-23-31826R1Appropriate complementary feeding practice and associated factors among mothers of children aged 6-23 months in Bhimphedi rural municipality of NepalPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. K.C.,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process. The abstract is a bit unclear. Please make necessary changes as per the reviewer comments.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Mar 22 2024 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Naveed Sadiq, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: May i suggest to the author to remove Lines 229-230 as it is repetitive?

And Good luck to the author

Reviewer #2: Authors probably misunderstood the previous round comment 1. I think the study's outcome variable is appropriate complementary feeding practice (ACFP). They have been measured ACFP by using a composite indicator comprising three of the WHO core IYCF indicators i.e. timely introduction of solid, complementary feeding, minimum dietary diversity, and minimum meal frequency. But in abstract results are not so clear therefore, kindly please go through the main finding's result section and write in that way. I accept that the three indicators are equal important but the comment is just for writing style and clarity.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: Yes: Khairul Hasnan Amali

Reviewer #2: No

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[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Appropriate complementary feeding practice and associated factors among mothers of children aged 6-23 months in Bhimphedi rural municipality of Nepal

PONE-D-23-31826R2

Dear Dr. K.C.,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Naveed Sadiq, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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