Providing healthy diets for young children: the experience of parents in a UK inner city

ABSTRACT

Objectives: There is a consistent body of evidence to demonstrate that obesity in very early childhood tends to continue into adolescence and through to adulthood. Parental practices in relation to food can have an effect on this trajectory, however existing studies reporting on interventions for treating obesity suggest there is a need to involve populations from demographically diverse backgrounds childhood obesity research. Design/Methods: A qualitative study was carried out using semi-structured interviews with parents in a deprived inner city area. Results: Although parents had good intentions towards providing a health diet for their chidren, a number of barriers emerged. Findings were reported in relation to the following themes: information and education; barriers (having a child with special needs, children’s food preferences and using food to promote desirable behaviour) and techniques (household rules & routines, setting limits and parameters, modelling and food preparation). Conclusion: Parents and carers would benefit from targeted interventions based on improving techniques around food parenting practices, with a focus on equipping parents with the skills to overcome barriers encountered not only in early childhood, but as children progress to school age and through to adolescence.

KEYWORDS:

• Childhood obesity
• obesity prevention
• social determinants of health
• parenting practices
• health behaviours
• lifestyle
• parental feeding practices
• Health Education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the TESCO PLC [Grant number R119456].

Notes on contributors

Joanna Goldthorpe

Joanna Goldthorpe is a research associate at the Manchester Healthy Lifestyles Research Group at the Manchester Centre for Health Psychology,  School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, UK

Nazneen Ali

Nazneen Ali is a psychology graduate an undergraduate student of medicine at the Division of Medical Education, School of Medical Sciences, University of Manchester, UK

Rachel Calam

Rachel Calam is an emeritus professor at the Division of Psychology and Mental Health, School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, UK