Table 2 Framework analysis of the Focus group discussion transcript using the Consolidated framework for implementation research

a) Intervention source: Stakeholders shared their views on the current diet of children and knowledge on types of indigenous food they perceived are suitable, accessible and available and should be included in the diet and address the poor eating habits. Stakeholders also identified the need for parents to be involved.

"Children are not fed properly the way they should be; the food that is being introduced are not good for their growth and development and don't include fruits and vegetables."

"Dinawa being grown from the gardens."

"Sweet potato can be included as part of food, potatoes, beetroot, leaves of sweet potatoes"

"To add to the list, peanuts can be favorable either dried or boiled"

"The good strategy is to limit the amount of food, some kids have big stomach and we think they are healthy, kids need to be taught how to eat/eating behavior as they don't differentiate, they just want to eat what is available"

"Parents should be fully involved to assist the children healthy eating"

b) Evidence Strength and Quality: Stakeholders shared their knowledge on the preparation of IF for improved children's health and development. Stakeholders are of the perception that some IF can be cooked alone and some can be mixed together to make one dish.

"cooking styles makes food more favorable"

"Dithlodi mixed with maize and make semothwane, they are small nice things we can cook as if its porridge and eat"

"lerotse, we can do jam and spread on bread, they are always available depending on water"

"Is like we can go back to the times of our grandparents, they were never sick, they ate food fresh from the ground, maize meal was processed from home without any chemical unlike now. I think the use of this food can contribute to the decline in diseases"

c) Relative advantage: Stakeholders perceived the IF diet to have a relative advantage over the current feeding practices currently implemented in ECD centers.

"The menu used in ECD centers should really need change and food should be strictly nutritious with inclusion of fruits and vegetables daily"

"Good feeding practices involve teaching children quality of food than quantity as parents is interested in giving them more food"

"Fatty foods must be avoided at all times"

"Children should not eat IF only at school they must also eat at home so that they can develop well"

d) Adaptability: The stakeholders were of the perception that the IF diet would be fairly adaptable to meet children's needs at the ECD centers. Stakeholders highlighted the need for self-motivated actions that were attainable with as little effort as a center starting up a garden as a source for important diet constituents.

"I support the idea, lets change the menu, we must go back to the indigenous food diet, eat food like dikgobe, kgodu and homemade mageu"

"We need to have gardens where we can grow our own food such as dinawa, spinach, this can help children to even see food from the soil before they are prepared, they can eat them in different ways. They will also know them from the soil not shops"

e) Trialability: Stakeholders expressed the need for early introduction of IF and selection of IF suitable for the children's health and development.

"Availability and accessibility of other IF may can be a problem"

"Involves the introduction of food that is in line with the age of the children and food that will benefit their health outcomes and good development"

"Fatty foods must be avoided at all times"

f) Complexity: Stakeholders expressed concern on some logistical challenges that may need to be overcome for successful implementation of the IF diet. Water scarcity emerged as one of those challenges. Further, stakeholders expressed the need to have parents fully on board with the program to ensure success.

"Water scarcity, parents not wanting their children to be fed"

"Food is not treating their kids well. Parents should be fully involved to assist the children healthy eating."

"Children must be able to see this food, if we say this is pumpkin, vegetables they must see them so that they can know them. Now we are buying them such as spinach due to water shortage. The knowledge of IF has disappeared."

g) Design Quality and Packaging: Stakeholders expressed the need to consider the quality of food than quantity as a good feeding practice for children. Early introduction of IF continue to adulthood.

"Good feeding practice involves teaching children quality of food rather than quantity as parents are interested in feeding them more food"

"We must change the introduction of genetically modified food from early age and give them proper nutritious food such as fruits and vegetables"

"For better health on children, the other method is to reduce the fatty foods, children start eating fatty foods from early childhood and continue to their adulthood, at the end they have diseases so we must avoid them"

"We must teach children to eat fruits and vegetables at the ECD centers because they spend more time there"

"IF makes people healthy, food of these days is no longer fresh due to injections"

h) Cost: Costs of the IF in the diet was raised as an important barrier to sustainability of the IF diet. Stakeholders raised concerns over other centers not being able to meet the costs of the requisite food products

"Other ECD centers may not follow the menu regularly if they fail to access the food, some may not have money to purchase them"