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Parental Strategies and Childhood Feeding Problems

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutritional Policies and Education for Health Promotion".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 November 2023) | Viewed by 2760

Special Issue Editors

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi’an 710061, China
Interests: prevention and control of NCDs; evaluation of population health; health management statistics; nutrition epidemiology
Global Health Institute, School of Public Health, Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi’an 710000, China
Interests: social-phycological determinants of childhood obesity and related mechanisms; childhood obesity intervention; health behaviors and health promotion

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The development of feeding problems in early childhood is a complex process. Many parents struggle with their child’s feeding problems, including food refusal and food selectiveness. Children who exhibit feeding problems have been shown to be at risk for poor growth and delayed cognitive development, and their parents have higher levels of parenting stress. This Special Issue publishes the latest findings with respect to the influence of parental strategies on childhood feeding problems and related mechanisms. Moreover, childhood feeding problems will also influence parental strategies; therefore, studies examining the bidirectional associations between parental strategies and a child’s feeding problems are especially welcome. Original research articles and review articles are welcome for this Special Issue, and they should contribute to elucidating the associations between parental strategies and childhood feeding problems. 

Dr. Yaling Zhao
Dr. Lu Ma
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • parental strategies
  • childhood feeding problems
  • food refusal
  • food selectiveness

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 343 KiB  
Article
Association of Maternal Feeding Style with Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Saudi Preschoolers: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study
by Amal Abdulaziz Al-buobayd, Hala Hazam Al-Otaibi and Hoda A. S. Farag
Nutrients 2023, 15(22), 4735; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15224735 - 09 Nov 2023
Viewed by 841
Abstract
Parental feeding style (PFS) remarkably influences fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption in preschoolers. This study aimed to determine the association between PFS and preschoolers’ F&V consumption, as influenced by socioeconomic factors. A nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted among 1418 mothers of children aged [...] Read more.
Parental feeding style (PFS) remarkably influences fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption in preschoolers. This study aimed to determine the association between PFS and preschoolers’ F&V consumption, as influenced by socioeconomic factors. A nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted among 1418 mothers of children aged 3–5 years in Saudi Arabia. Multinomial logistic regression model analysis was performed to assess the association between PFS and children’s daily F&V intake using the Parental Feeding Style Questionnaire. The influence of socioeconomic factors on this association was also evaluated. For mothers with university degrees, encouragement, emotional, and instrumental feeding enhanced their children’s intake of F&Vs, fruits, and vegetables, respectively. Children from families earning SAR >10,000 monthly had increased F&V intake with encouragement feeding and increased fruit intake with emotional feeding. However, F&V intake was reduced in children of working mothers with controlling feeding styles. Breastfeeding for <6 months was associated with increased F&V intake through emotional feeding. The most prevalent feeding style was encouragement, followed by emotional, with control and instrumental styles being less common. This study provides strong evidence on the association between PFS and daily F&V intake in Saudi preschoolers. Interventional and longitudinal studies on PFS are required to confirm these findings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Parental Strategies and Childhood Feeding Problems)
14 pages, 564 KiB  
Article
Division of Responsibility in Child Feeding and Eating Competence among Brazilian Caregivers
by Rafaella Dusi, Raquel Braz Assunção Botelho, Eduardo Yoshio Nakano, Fabiana Lopes Nalon de Queiroz and Renata Puppin Zandonadi
Nutrients 2023, 15(9), 2225; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15092225 - 08 May 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1368
Abstract
This cross-sectional study aimed to assess Brazilian child caregivers’ eating competence (EC) and their adherence to the division of responsibility (sDOR) in child feeding. The research had national coverage in all Brazilian regions. The sample comprised 549 caregivers of Brazilian children (24 up [...] Read more.
This cross-sectional study aimed to assess Brazilian child caregivers’ eating competence (EC) and their adherence to the division of responsibility (sDOR) in child feeding. The research had national coverage in all Brazilian regions. The sample comprised 549 caregivers of Brazilian children (24 up to 72 months) recruited by social media (snowball method). Data on sDOR and EC were collected using the sDOR.2-6yTM Portuguese—Brazil (sDOR.2-6y-BR) and ecSI2.0TMBR, both instruments validated to the Brazilian population. The scores of the sDOR.2-6y-BR were described in terms of means, standard deviations (SD), medians, and interquartile range. Student’s t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey’s post hoc tests were used to compare the scores of sDOR.2-6y-BR and ecSI2.0TMBR with interest variables. The association between the sDOR.2-6y-BR and ecSI2.0TMBR scores was verified by Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Most of the participants were female (n = 88.7%), 37.8 ± 5.1 y/o, had a high schooling level (70.31%), and high monthly income (more than 15 minimum wages—MW) (31.69%). The children for whom the participants were responsible were mostly girls (53.19%), with an average age of 3.6 ± 1.3 y/o. The instrument presented good responsiveness (floor and ceiling effects = 0%). Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.268. There was no statistical difference in sDOR.2-6y-BR scores between caregiver’s gender, age, level of education, number of people living in the household, or by gender or age of the child. Caregivers who reported (n = 100) that their children had some medical diagnosis (e.g., food allergy, autism, or Down syndrome) had lower sDOR adherence scores than caregivers who indicated their children had no medical diagnosis (p = 0.031). There was no statistical difference in ecSI2.0TMBR scores between the categories of caregiver’s gender, age, occupancy, and child’s gender and age. Caregivers with income higher than 10 MW, living in houses with more than 3 people, and with graduate schooling showed higher EC scores. Caregivers considered competent eaters by ecSI2.0TMBR scores differed only for educational level, which was more frequent among graduate participants. The total EC score was positively associated with total and mealtime structure (D1), how food is available to the child (D3), and the parent gives respect to the child’s autonomy in eating (D4) sDOR.2-6yTM domains. There was a negative association with the what is available to the child (D2) sDOR.2-6yTM domain. In general, the sDOR.2-6y-BR had a positive association with the ecSI2.0TMBR in all domains and total, with a low but significant correlation. This study enables the investigation of the division of responsibility in feeding and EC of a sample of caregivers of children in Brazil. This is the first study to apply the translated and validated version of the sDOR.2-6y-BR and showed good results, where competent eaters’ caregivers adhere more to the principles of sDOR. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Parental Strategies and Childhood Feeding Problems)
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