Abstract:

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between the feeding practices of parents of preschool children and the eating behaviors of children. Material and Methods: The parents who had 2 to 6 years of age children without chronic disease and had completed the transition to supplementary foods were included (n=315). Family demographic, socioeconomic information and children’s anthropometric measurements were recorded. The parents completed the “Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ)”, and “Children’s Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ)”. Results: The mean age of the children participating were 46±14.63 months and 46.7% (147/315) of the children were girls. As parents’ perceived responsibility for feeding increased, the children’s food responsiveness tended to decrease. In parents who had concerns about their child’s weight, their children’s eating behavior was associated with higher food responsiveness and enjoyment of food and lower satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, and emotional undereating. Conclusion: Parents’ healthy eating attitudes can be part of a process that encourages children to model healthy eating behaviors. ‘Satiety responsiveness’, ‘slowness in eating’, and ‘emotional under-eating behaviors were observed more frequently with the attitude of restriction and pressure for eating.

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