Girls in early childhood increase food returns of nursing women during subsistence activities of the BaYaka in the Republic of Congo

Nursing mothers face an energetic trade-off between infant care and work.
Under pooled energy budgets, this trade-off can be reduced by assistance
in food acquisition and infant care tasks from non-maternal caregivers.
Across cultures, children also often provide infant care. Yet the question
of who helps nursing mothers during foraging has been understudied,
especially the role of children. Using focal follow data from 140
subsistence expeditions by BaYaka women in the Republic of Congo, we
investigated how potential support from caregivers increased mothers’
foraging productivity. We found that the number of girls in early
childhood (ages 4–7) in subsistence groups increased food returns of
nursing women with infants (kcal collected per minute). This effect was
stronger than that of other adult women, and older girls in middle
childhood (ages 8–13) and adolescence (ages 14–19). Child helpers were not
necessarily genetically related to nursing women. Our results suggest that
it is young girls who provide infant care while nursing mothers are
acquiring food – by holding, monitoring, and playing with infants– and,
thus, that they also contribute to the energy pool of the community during
women’s subsistence activities. Our study highlights the critical role of
children as caregivers from early childhood.