Fraser Kylie, Markides Brittany Reese, Barrett Norma, Laws Rachel
School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia.
Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia.
Matern Child Nutr. 2021 Jul;17(3):e13171. doi: 10.1111/mcn.13171. Epub 2021 Mar 19.
The development of healthy eating habits in childhood is essential to reducing later risk of obesity. However, many parents manage fussy eating in toddlerhood with ineffective feeding practices that limit children's dietary variety and reinforce obesogenic eating behaviours. Understanding parents' feeding concerns and support needs may assist in the development of feeding interventions designed to support parents' uptake of responsive feeding practices. A total of 130 original posts by parents of toddlers (12-36 months) were extracted from the online website Reddit's 'r/Toddlers' community discussion forum over a 12-month period. Qualitative content analysis was used to categorise the fussy eating topics that parents were most concerned about and the types of support they were seeking from online peers. The most frequently raised fussy eating concerns were refusal to eat foods offered, inadequate intake (quantity and quality), problematic mealtime behaviours and changes in eating patterns. Parents were primarily seeking practical support (69.2%) to manage emergent fussy eating behaviours. This consisted of requests for practical feeding advice and strategies or meal ideas. Nearly half of parents sought emotional support (47.7%) to normalise their child's eating behaviour and seek reassurance from people with lived experience. Informational support about feeding was sought to a lesser extent (16.2%). Fussy eating poses a barrier to children's dietary variety and establishing healthy eating habits. These results suggest parents require greater knowledge and skills on 'how to feed' children and support to manage feeding expectations. Health professionals and child feeding interventions should focus on providing parents with practical feeding strategies to manage fussy eating. Supporting parents to adopt and maintain responsive feeding practices is vital to developing healthy eating habits during toddlerhood that will continue throughout adulthood.
儿童时期养成健康的饮食习惯对于降低日后肥胖风险至关重要。然而，许多家长在幼儿期应对挑食问题时采用的喂养方式无效，这些方式限制了孩子的饮食多样性，并强化了致肥胖的饮食行为。了解家长在喂养方面的担忧和支持需求，可能有助于制定喂养干预措施，以支持家长采用响应式喂养方式。在12个月的时间里，从在线网站Reddit的“r/Toddlers”社区讨论论坛中提取了130条幼儿（12至36个月）家长的原创帖子。采用定性内容分析法，对家长最关心的挑食话题以及他们从在线同龄人那里寻求的支持类型进行分类。最常提出的挑食担忧是拒绝吃提供的食物、摄入量不足（数量和质量）、用餐时的问题行为以及饮食模式的变化。家长主要寻求实际支持（69.2%）来应对出现的挑食行为。这包括请求提供实际的喂养建议、策略或膳食想法。近一半的家长寻求情感支持（47.7%），以使孩子的饮食行为正常化，并从有实际经验的人那里获得安心。对喂养信息支持的需求程度较低（16.2%）。挑食对孩子的饮食多样性和养成健康饮食习惯构成了障碍。这些结果表明，家长在“如何喂养”孩子方面需要更多的知识和技能，以及管理喂养期望的支持。卫生专业人员和儿童喂养干预措施应侧重于为家长提供应对挑食的实际喂养策略。支持家长采用并维持响应式喂养方式，对于在幼儿期养成健康饮食习惯至关重要，这些习惯将持续到成年期。
