Purpose: Parental feeding styles and practices are driven by parental goals and values; yet, little research has focused on these antecedents. The goal of this study is to understand, the global- and feeding-specific goals and values of women during the first 1000 days of life, and how feeding goals and values evolve over time, and in response to contextual factors.

Methods: A purposive sample of Hispanic mothers were recruited from community programs (home visitation, WIC) via direct contact, word of mouth, etc. We attempted to recruit mothers who were pregnant (3^rd trimester) or had children ages (months) 0-6, 6-12, 12-18 and 18-24. Semi-structure interviews with n=36 mothers were conducted by two research assistants, predominantly in Spanish, and audio recording transcribed. An inductive and deductive coding was completed. Transcripts were reviewed and initial themes identified based on a priori topics and themes that emerged integrated.  Mothers completed a brief survey to asses their beliefs toward specific feeding practices.
Results: Mothers were on average 29 years old. Overall, mothers across all stages identified having a happy, healthy child, devoid of illness as one of their primary goals. Other global goals and values included being a good mother, being educated, and sharing traditions and culture. Feeding-specific goals and values did not initially emerge when asked about their primary goals and values for their child, but upon probing mothers did share these. Similarities across stages included not wanting a “picky eater” and having a healthy eater, specifically “a child that likes vegetables”. Differences across stages included a focus on the ability to breastfeed or provide enough milk for infants (pregnant mothers) vs. limiting exposure to unhealthy foods (mothers with older infants). 

Conclusions: Parents primary goals and values are not directly tied to feeding. When asked specifically about feeding, there were some clear goals, particularly around not wanting a picky eater. Better understanding of these parental goals and values and how they are similar and different across key development milestones can potentially help inform effective interventions to support parents and reduce disparities in obesity.

Purpose: Increased environmental awareness has led to growing concerns about food waste in the home. Research suggests that concerns about waste influence the size of portions parents serve their children; however, links between food waste concern and other food related parenting practices are understudied.

Methods: Mothers of preschool children (mean age 32.25±5.80 years) completed an online survey and were divided into 3 groups using a 2-item, 5-point scale: low food waste concern (score<2.5; n=125), moderate food waste concern (score≥2.5 to ­3.5; n=286) and high food waste concern (score>3.5; n=137). ANCOVA, with Hager’s 2-item Food Insecurity screener score as a covariate, and Tukey post hoc procedures were used to examine significant (P<0.01) links between food waste concerns and maternal feeding practices.

Results: Mothers who were the most concerned about food waste were significantly more likely to pressure children to eat, restrict children’s food intake, use food and non-food rewards, overtly control when children ate, and control children’s unsupervised access to both healthy and unhealthy foods than mothers with moderate and low food waste concern. Similarly, moderate concern mothers were significantly more likely to restrict children’s food intake, use both food and non-food rewards for healthy eating, and control when children ate. Mothers in the lowest concern group had significantly higher BMIs than mothers in the other groups. Child BMI did not differ significantly by mother’s food waste concerns.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that mothers with high food waste concern are more likely to utilize child-feeding practices that do not align with current best practice guidelines (i.e., pressuring children to eat, restricting child intake, using food and non-food rewards, and covertly controlling child intake). Future studies aiming to improve child-feeding practices may benefit by teaching mothers strategies for minimizing food waste that are in line with recommendations for child feeding.

Purpose: Parents’ feeding practices influence children’s food intake. Little is known about how children’s eating behaviours (fussiness, enjoyment of food, food responsiveness, satiety responsiveness) influence these associations or feeding practices. This study examines associations between feeding practices and pre-school children’s diet quality and whether children’s eating behaviours influence these relationships. Furthermore, this study examines the associations between feeding practices and child eating behaviours.

Methods: In 2018, 1400 Australian mothers of children aged 2-5 years completed an online survey including validated measures of feeding practices (n=9), child eating behaviours (n=4) and diet quality. Fourteen items were summed as a measure of diet quality; higher scores indicate better quality. Linear regression assessed associations between feeding practices and diet quality, including interactions between feeding practices and child eating behaviours.

Results: The feeding practices positively associated with diet quality were; structured meal timing, monitoring, covert restriction, modelling healthy eating and structured meal setting (coefficients: 0.64 to 2.68). The feeding practices negatively associated with diet quality were; overt restriction, persuasive feeding, reward for eating and reward for behaviour (coefficients: -0.91 to -1.84). Child eating behaviours were associated with feeding practices. Child eating behaviours moderated associations between three feeding practices and diet quality. The findings suggest that enjoyment of food and fussiness moderated the association between structured meal setting and child diet quality. The models also suggest that enjoyment of food and food responsiveness moderated the associations between monitoring and child diet quality. Lastly, satiety responsiveness moderated the associations between modelling and child diet quality.

Conclusions: Some associations between feeding practices and child diet quality appear to be moderated by children’s eating behaviours and child eating behaviours influence most feeding practices. Additionally, child eating behaviours were associated with feeding practices. Therefore, nutrition promotion programs may need to be tailored for parents with different feeding practices and children with differing eating behaviours.