Family Diet and Eating Habits as Factors Influencing Child Health and Development
A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Pediatric Nutrition".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 March 2025) | Viewed by 2578
Special Issue Editor
Interests: dietary patterns; complementary feeding; nutrition of infants, children, and adoles-cents; relationship between nutrition and healthy development of children or quality of life; nutrition knowledge
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Family diet and eating habits are factors that influence child health and development. Parental factors and the level of parental nutritional knowledge are important both for the duration of breastfeeding, the timing of diet expansion, and the composition of the diet of older children. Parental non-compliance with feeding recommendations can result in the development of feeding disorders, nutritional deficiencies, or excessive weight in the child. It is important that knowledge is put into practice and allows health-promoting feeding behaviour to be perpetuated in the family. Both very early and very late expansion of the infant's diet and irregularities in reading the signals indicating the child's hunger or satiety lead to feeding errors and feeding difficulties and can have a negative impact on the child's physical and psycho-emotional development. Mistakes made by parents can contribute to the child's reluctance to explore new foods, the consumption of excessive amounts of energy, a mismatch between the composition of the diet and the maturity of the child's digestive system, and a higher incidence of allergic reactions to foods. In the case of older children, it is not only the quantity of meals that is important but also their composition, the consumption of the first breakfast, and the matching of portion sizes to the child's needs. It is important to compose meals correctly to continue correct behaviours to prevent the development of diet-dependent diseases in both childhood and adulthood. Nutritional deficiencies can lead not only to growth disorders but also to the development of feeding disorders, which, perpetuated in childhood, are risk factors for the development of many diseases of civilisation, eating disorders, or emotional disorders in later life. Therefore, the family's eating habits and diet are key factors in the child's physical, mental, and health development.
Dr. Małgorzata Kostecka
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- family diet
- eating habits
- child health
- nutritional knowledge
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
