Association between parental feeding practices and shared family meals. The Food4toddlers study

Abstract

Background: Parental feeding practices and family meals are important determinants for infants' diet and health. Still, there is no previous research of the association between feeding practices and family meals in infants. Objective: Explore potential associations between feeding practices and family meals among infants. Design: We present cross-sectional results (baseline) from the Food4toddlers study. In total 298 parents of 1-year-olds, recruited from all over Norway, filled in a questionnaire regarding frequency of shared family meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and feeding practices using the validated instrument Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to explore the associations between having family meals every day and feeding practices (10 dimensions). Results: The children included were about 11 months old, and 55% were boys. Parents were highly educated. Most children had family breakfast and dinner (60-65%), while fewer had family lunch every day (35%). We found that eating family breakfast and lunch every day was associated with use of the positive feeding practices: encourage balance and variety, environment and modelling (ORs ranging from 1.15 to 1.37), while eating family breakfast and family lunch less often was associated with the negative feeding practice pressure to eat (OR, 95% CI: 0.90 (0.83, 0.96) and 0.91 (0.84, 0.97), respectively). Eating family dinner every day was associated with more use of the positive feeding practice balance and variety (OR, 95% CI: 1.21 (1.06, 1.38), while having family dinner less often was associated with use of the negative feeding practices pressure to eat and restriction to health (OR, 95% CI: 0.89 (0.83, 0.96) and 0.94 (0.87, 1.01), respectively). Discussion and conclusion: In this group of infants, having family meals every day was associated with positive feeding practices, while having family meals less often was associated with negative feeding practices. Shared family meals provide an important setting for healthy eating, development of feeding skills and dietary habits formation.

Maternal mental health is associated with children's frequency of family meals at 12 and 24 months of age

“…For frequency of family meals and use of nonrecommended child feeding practices, the associations were moderate to strong. As an extension of these findings, a previous paper from our research group reported that having family meals every day was associated with positive parental feeding practices, while having family meals less often was associated with negative feeding practises (Øverby et al, 2020 ). Taken together, these findings indicate that maternal symptoms of anxiety and depression may have implications for both the quantity and the relational feeding quality of the family meal.…”

Barriers and enablers to caregivers' responsive feeding behaviour: A systematic review to inform childhood obesity prevention

“…The same study found that non‐technology object‐related distractions and fathers' total distractions were negatively associated with maternal feeding response 42 . Baseline data from the Norwegian Food4toddlers study revealed that not eating family meals together was a barrier which enacted negative practices such as pressure to eat and restriction 64 …”

“…The majority of studies were conducted in the USA ( n = 20), 24–43 followed by Australia ( n = 10), 44–53 United Kingdom ( n = 8), 54–61 New Zealand ( n = 1), 62 Norway ( n = 2), 63,64 and Sweden ( n = 1) 65 . Thirty‐four studies, reported in 33 papers, employed a quantitative design, including RCTs of an intervention ( n = 5), 32,39,50,62,63 observational cohort studies ( n = 8), 24,27–29,35,54,59,60 cross‐sectional studies ( n = 11), 24,30,38,41–44,46,48,53,64 a case–control study, 26 a within‐subject experimental study, 40 a quasi‐experimental study, 51 and observational descriptive/measurement development 31 . Six studies undertook secondary analyses; two used cross‐sectional data, 25,37 two studies used data from observational cohort studies, 33,45 one used control group data, 34 and one used data from an RCT 36 .…”

“…The quantitative non‐randomised studies all included participants who were representative of the target population 28,30,31,40,41,51 . The quantitative descriptive studies were generally well conducted although it was not always possible to ascertain sample representativeness 26,27,29,33,34,37,38,44,45,48,53,59,60,64 . Some of the quantitative descriptive studies focused on participants from particular groups such as infants who had been adopted, 33 and as such, these findings are not generalizable.…”

Association between parental feeding practices and children’s dietary intake: a cross-sectional study in the Gardermoen Region, Norway

“…However, the studies are limited to toddlers <1 years, and to the intake of fruits and vegetables ( 20 – 22 ). Moreover, some studies conducted in Norway have explored feeding practices in relation to other endpoints than food intake, like shared family meals ( 21 , 22 ). The main aim of this study was to explore the possible association between parental feeding practices and the intake of vegetables, fruits/berries, fish, foods with added sugars, and SSB in Norwegian preschoolers.…”