Childhood obesity and health behavior programs are increasingly a focus within literature and individual provider practices. This study was designed to inform "best practices" for establishing effective programs in the medical setting by identifying persons and factors that influence children's willingness to be active, eat healthy, and lose weight when medically appropriate. A total of 342 chi...

BACKGROUND Small-scale evaluations suggest that the provision of feedback to parents about their child's weight status may improve recognition of overweight, but the effects on lifestyle behaviour are unclear and there are concerns that informing parents that their child is overweight may have harmful effects. The aims of this study were to describe the benefits and harms of providing weight fe...

BACKGROUND Parental feeding styles were linked to child weight in cross-sectional studies, which were unable to test the direction of effect. Prospective studies can best establish causal relationships among such variables. OBJECTIVE We tested the 2-year stability of parental feeding attitudes and styles and investigated whether these variables predict child body mass index (BMI) z scores 2 y...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate parents' beliefs and practices related to childhood obesity and determine if these are influenced by parent's perception of their own weight or their child's weight. METHODS Parents of obese (n = 689) or normal weight (n = 1122) children 4-15 years in Georgia, USA, were randomly selected to complete a telephone survey. Frequency of child obesity-related perceptions, beli...

The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between maternal concern about child under- and overweight, the use of maternal feeding practices (pressure to eat and restriction, monitoring and modelling of healthy eating), child eating behaviours (fussiness and food responsiveness) and child body mass index. The sample consisted of 183 mothers of 2- to 4-year-old children who completed...

The study examined the accuracy of maternal-perceived child weight. Urban affluent mothers of 111 children aged 2-5 years were recruited. Nearly a quarter of mothers overestimated their underweight child as normal weight and all overweight/obese children were perceived as normal weight. Mothers, therefore, were unable to recognize their child's true weight status.

Introduction: The efficacy of Growth Monitoring and Promotion (GMP) program depends on active participation. However, its low acceptance by mothers is believed to reduce their participation in the program. Objective: This study aims to assess maternal beliefs and knowledge about GMP and examine its association with the child growth parameters. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study...

BACKGROUND The family meal and social interactions during the meal are important events in a child's life. Specifically, mealtime interactions have been linked to child weight status, the development of children's eating patterns, and socialization. Mealtime interactions may be observed and evaluated to provide insights into this important event beyond self-reported measurements. OBJECTIVE We...