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Toddler Feeding Practices in Early Head Start and Migrant/Seasonal Early Head Start Mothers
Author(s) -
Voorheis Grace,
Papathakis Peggy,
Nicholson Lisa
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.901.13
Subject(s) - toddler , early head start , head start , medicine , likert scale , developmental psychology , demography , pediatrics , psychology , sociology
Objective Measure baseline data on parental feeding practices of low‐income, Latina mothers of toddlers (1‐3 years) enrolled in Head Start in order to develop parent education. Methods Sixty‐six mothers in Early Head Start (EHS, n=25) and Migrant/Seasonal Early Head Start (MSHS, n=41) completed a 24 item Likert scale (1‐5 with 1=Never/Not confident) to assess self‐efficacy, behavior and intentions regarding 4 domains of toddler feeding practice. These were scheduling, self‐regulation, indulging, and parental role modeling. Mean Likert scores for each question were analyzed by subgroup. Results Mothers in both groups were similar in their parental feeding practices; they had low self‐efficacy for allowing their child to play with food and high self‐efficacy for discerning when their child was full. Both groups indicated they kept a regular meal schedule more frequently than a snack schedule and infrequently encouraged their child to eat more when he/she has indicated fullness. Self‐efficacy regarding avoiding indulging their child's favorite foods was higher in EHS mothers than MSHS mothers (p=0.041). For MSHS mothers, indulging their toddler with sweets (p=0.024) and role modeling eating fruits (p=0.014) were significantly more frequent than in EHS mothers. EHS mothers allowed their child to snack all day more frequently than MSHS mothers (p=0.013). Conclusion Indulging in favorite foods appears more common in families in MSHS than in EHS. Frequent consumption of fruit is higher in MSHS than EHS families, potentially because these mothers are employed in fruit‐picking industry. Future educational interventions should focus on encouraging authoritative feeding styles to avoid indulgence and maintain a schedule throughout the day.