Policy and environmental changes were recommended for fostering a respectful relationship and building a bridge between providers and parents to improve communication about children's nutrition and health.

Approximately 15 million children under age 6 are in childcare settings, offering childcare providers an opportunity to influence children’s dietary intake. Childcare settings vary in organizational structure – childcare centers (CCCs) vs. family childcare homes (FCCHs) – and in geographical location – urban vs. rural. Research on the nutrition-related best practices across these childcare settings is scarce. The objective of this study is to compare nutrition-related best practices of CCCs and FCCHs that participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) in rural and urban Nebraska. Nebraska providers (urban n = 591; rural n = 579) reported implementation level, implementation difficulty and barriers to implementing evidence-informed food served and mealtime practices. Chi-square tests comparing CCCs and FCCHs in urban Nebraska and CCCs and FCCHs in rural Nebraska showed sub-optimal implementation for some practices across all groups, including limiting fried meats and high sugar/ high fat foods, using healthier foods or non-food treats for celebrations and serving meals family style. Significant differences (p < .05) between CCCs and FCCHs also emerged, especially with regard to perceived barriers to implementing best practices. For example, CCCs reported not having enough money to cover the cost of meals for providers, lack of control over foods served and storage problems, whereas FCCHs reported lack of time to prepare healthier foods and sit with children during mealtimes. Findings suggest that policy and public health interventions may need to be targeted to address the unique challenges of implementing evidence-informed practices within different organizational structures and geographic locations.

To understand parental ethnotheories (i.e., belief systems) and practices about preschoolers' healthy eating guided by the developmental niche framework. Design: Qualitative hermeneutic phenomenology. Setting: Home. Participants: Participants were 20 parents of preschool-age children ages 3 to 5 years, recruited from a quantitative investigation. A majority of the participants were white, female, married, well educated, and working full time. Methods: Participants who completed the quantitative survey were asked to provide their contact information if they were willing to be interviewed. From the pool of participants who expressed their willingness to participate in the interviews, 20 participants were selected using a random number generator. In-person semistructured interviews were conducted until data saturation (n = 20). Thematic analysis was performed. digitalcommons.unl.edu Results: Three themes and 6 subthemes emerged: theme 1-parental ethnotheories about healthy eating included subthemes of knowledge about healthy eating, motivations to promote healthy child development through healthy eating, and sources of knowledge about healthy eating (e.g., doctors, social media, government guidelines, positive family-of-origin experiences); theme 2-parental ethnotheories that supported organization of children's physical and social settings included structured mealtime routines and food socialization influences (e.g., grandparents, siblings, and childcare programs); and theme 3-parental ethnotheories that supported children's learning about healthy eating included parent-child engagement, communication, and encouragement in food-related activities (e.g., meal preparation, visiting farmer's market, grocery shopping, gardening, cooking, baking). Conclusion: Findings advance the literature on parental practices about healthy eating. Parental ethnotheories (e.g., beliefs, motivations, knowledge, and skills) matter. Developmental niche of preschoolers (i.e., physical and social settings, childrearing practices, and parental ethnotheories) constitutes an interactive system in which ethnotheories serve as guides to parental practices. Fostering nutrition education and parent-child engagement, communication, and encouragement in food-related activities are recommended to promote children's healthy eating in daily routines.

Although long-distance parenting is often depicted as a response to crisis (e.g., economic) or other stressful life events, it is sometimes undertaken in various culturally normative situations. This current study explores the motivations of South Asian Indian immigrant parents for sending their young children to India to live temporarily with their grandparents. This qualitative study involves in-depth interviews with first generation immigrant parents about their experiences and motivations for sending their children to India. Analysis of the data revealed five themes, namely, (a) contextual and daily challenges in caring for their children in the United States, (b) parents’ concern around paid group childcare, (c) grandparents as ideal caregivers but unable to stay in the United States, (d) presence of other extended network of relationships and support in India and (e) parents wanting their children to maintain their language and customs. Findings suggest culturally grounded beliefs around optimal childrearing (e.g., grandparents as ideal caregivers, presence of extended network of support in India and maintaining Indian traditions and values) and parents’ contextual needs (e.g., parents’ busy schedule around job and education) when traditional caregiving context changes due to migration to a new country. Implications for researchers are discussed.

Background: Parent feeding practices play a critical role in children’s eating behaviors. Limited research has explored child-level correlates of parent feeding practices. Aim: To identify correlates of feeding practices (responsive and controlling) among parents of preschoolers US. Methods: Participants included parents (n = 273) of preschoolers (3–5 years), recruited from Early Care and Education settings (n = 24) located in a metropolitan city in the US. Analysis included descriptives, correlations, and multiple regression. Results: For responsive feeding practices, positive associations included child's weight with unintentional modeling ( β = .17, 95% CI [0.12, 0.53]), child vegetable consumption with behavioral role modeling ( β = 0.22, 95% CI [0.17, 0.44]), and parent monitoring with verbal modeling ( β = 0.21, 95% CI [0.12, 0.34]). For controlling feeding practices, parent restriction was positively associated with child weight concern ( β = 0.22, 95% CI [0.13, 0.39]) and parent monitoring ( β = 0.13, 95% CI [0.01, 0.19]), whereas child vegetable consumption was negatively associated ( β = −0.16, 95% CI [−0.27, −0.05]). Pressure to eat was negatively associated with child weight concern ( β = −0.18, 95% CI [−0.45, −0.09]), child fruit consumption ( β = −0.12, 95% CI [−0.37, −0.01]), household income ( β = −0.13, 95% CI [−0.30, −0.02]), and parent weight ( β = −0.14, 95% CI [−0.60, −0.05]), Conclusions: Findings highlight the importance of child characteristics when examining correlates of parent feeding practices, demonstrating bidirectional interactions between parent feeding practices and children’s eating behaviors. Considering child-level correlates may improve the implementation of responsive feeding practices and reduce controlling feeding practices.