1. Child-feeding Behaviors and Concerns about Weight
of Obese Mothers of Preschoolers
Cynthia Schwarz, MPH, MS, RD, Christina Lapka, MS, RD, Byron Yount, MA, Karen Steger-May, MA, Mary Bednarski, MA, Debra Haire-Joshu, PhD
Center for Obesity Prevention and Policy Research, George Warren Brown School of Social Work and Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
Background & Methods
Results r
Demographics (N=98)
Mother
Child
Age
MN = 31
(SD 6)
MN = 3.6
(SD 0.7)
BMI
MN BMI = 36.2
(SD 4.4)
MN BMI %ile = 82.4
(SD 12.4)
60th– 84th percentile BMI
(at-risk for obesity)
≥ 85th percentile BMI (overweight or obese)
N/A
53%
47%
Race
White
African American
Other
60%
34% 6%
56%
10%
Mothers reporting agreement with the use of feeding practices leading to obesity
Pushing child to eat more
Did you encourage him/her to eat all the food on his/her plate?
79%
Did you encourage your child to finish all his/her dinner before he/she could have a dessert?
59%
Did you offer him/her dessert after a meal to get him/her to eat foods that were good for him/her?
39%
Difficulty in child feeding
Did you get upset when he/she did not eat enough?
27%
Do you worry that he/she was not eating enough?
33%
Structure and control during feeding interactions
Did he/she watch TV at meals?
38%
Did you allow him/her to eat snacks whenever he/she wanted?
45%
If he/she did not like what was being served, did you make something else?
30%
Did you give him/her something to eat/drink if he/she was upset even if you thought he/she was not hungry?
21%
At dinner, did you let him/her choose the foods he/she wanted to eat from what was served?
18%
Did you feed him/her yourself if he/she did not eat enough?
40%
I am worried that my child will become underweight
12%
Background
Prior research suggests maternal feeding practices may be associated with childhood obesity.
Maternal obesity may influence perceptions about what are appropriate child-feeding practices
The HEALTH (Healthy Eating and Active Living Taught at Home) study evaluates the translation of the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) into a child development program with obese mothers and their preschool child.
Purpose
To determine the child-feeding practices of obese mothers enrolled in HEALTH
Methods & Measures
Mothers (age 18 to 45; BMI between 30-45) recruited to HEALTH were located in the St. Louis region and had a preschool child at-risk for obesity (60th%ile to 84%ile for BMI) or were already overweight or obese (≥85%ile for BMI).
Height and weight of the mother and preschooler were collected by trained staff.
Mothers completed the Preschooler Feeding Questionnaire (PFQ), a 32-item measure of child-feeding practices associated with obesity (Responses 1 to 5; never, always, neutral, disagree a lot, agree a lot)
Mothers with a child at-risk for obesity were significantly less concerned about their child’s weight than were mothers of overweight or obese children (p=0.004)
Conclusions
Majority of obese mother believe it is important for them to control their child’s food environment in terms of quantity and quality of food intake. However, children are naturally able to self-regulate food intake in terms of timing and portion size.
Obese mothers do not recognize their child is at-risk for obesity and, in fact, are more concerned about underweight.
Ongoing and early intervention is needed to prevent the intergenerational transfer of obesogenic feeding patterns from mother to child.
Funded by: National Institutes of Health
Funded by: National Institutes of Health