African-American and Hispanic children's beverage intake: Differences in associations with desire to drink, fathers' feeding practices, and weight concerns

Abstract

Relationships of African-American and Hispanic fathers’ feeding practices and weight concerns and preschoolers’ desire to drink with children’s beverage intake were examined, and associations between fathers’ feeding practices and children’s weight status were evaluated. Fathers’ (Hispanic n = 61, African-American n = 49) difficulty in child feeding, use of food to calm, use of food as reward, and concern about the child being under and overweight as well as their child’s desire to drink were assessed. Preschoolers’ (ages 2 to 5) total sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB), fruit juice, and water intake were measured by a modified beverage intake questionnaire. Body Mass Index (BMI) and BMI percentile were calculated for fathers and children, respectively. Multiple regressions revealed that, in Hispanics, difficulty in feeding, concern about underweight, use of food to calm, and use of food as a reward were significantly associated with child intake of total SSB, whereas, in African-Americans, child desire to drink was associated with total SSB and fruit juice. Concern about the child being underweight was inversely associated with child BMI percentile in Hispanics. Significant differences in regression coefficients of child SSB intake to fathers’ behaviors versus child desire to drink between the two racial-ethnic groups indicated that use of food to calm the child predicted increased intake of SSB by Hispanic but not by African-American children, while child desire to drink predicted increased intake of SSB by African-American but not by Hispanic children. Because of these significant differences, future research might profitably explore socio-cultural influences on associations of additional child feeding behaviors with fathers’ attempts to control them. Furthermore, practitioners should consider developing and evaluating different child obesity interventions for these two racial-ethnic groups.

Hispanic Mothers’ Views of the Fathers’ Role in Promoting Healthy Behaviors at Home: Focus Group Findings

“…51 In a study with low-income minority fathers of preschoolers, use of food as reward was associated with child’s intake of sugar-sweetened beverages in Latino children, but not in African-American children. 55 …”

Fathers' feeding practices and children's weight status in Mexican American families

“…Another study reported no association between fathers’ pressure to eat or restriction and their preschool age children’s weight status (Vollmer, Adamsons, Foster, & Mobley, 2015). More recently, one study examining the feeding practices of Latino and African American fathers of preschool age children reported no association between use of food as a reward and their children’s weight status (Lora, Hubbs-Tait, Ferris, & Wakefield, 2016). To gain a deeper understanding of the home food environment, more research is needed on the role of parent gender in these associations.…”

Longitudinal associations between eating and drinking engagement during mealtime and eating in the absence of hunger in low income toddlers

“…In addition, drinking engagement during mealtimes at 27 months of age predicted eating past satiation at 33 months of age. These findings are important, considering that the nature of children’s beverage drinking behaviors has been associated with increased intake of calories (Bonuck et al, 2010; Lora et al, 2016), yet such drinking behaviors have not been extensively considered with examined with respect to obesogenic eating behaviors such as EAH that may promote childhood obesity risk.…”

“…Thus, although drinking engagement may be a behavior that could lead to increased risk for obesity/overweight (e.g., through consuming more high-calorie beverages), to our knowledge, DD has not yet been directly evaluated in relation to obesogenic eating behaviors such as EAH that may signal risk for excessive weight gain during toddlerhood. Furthermore, although Lora and colleagues (2016) found that DD was associated with intake of sugar-sweetened beverages, this study was based on parent-report of child DD and intake of sugar-sweetened beverages. Toddler drinking engagement has also rarely been observationally assessed, despite the important potential benefits of using observational methods compared to maternal reports of child behaviors (Pesch & Lumeng 2017).…”

“…For instance, two studies failed to find an association between DD and weight status in preschool-aged children (Domoff et al, 2015; Powers, Chamberlin, Schaick, Sherman, & Whitaker, 2006). However, Lora and colleagues (2016) found that DD was indirectly associated with weight status in African American preschool-aged children through the intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (Lora, Hubbs-Tait, Ferris, & Wakefield, 2016). Thus, although drinking engagement may be a behavior that could lead to increased risk for obesity/overweight (e.g., through consuming more high-calorie beverages), to our knowledge, DD has not yet been directly evaluated in relation to obesogenic eating behaviors such as EAH that may signal risk for excessive weight gain during toddlerhood.…”