Child food portion sizes in the home environment: how do parents decide?

Abstract

The consumption of larger portion sizes (PS) of food has been implicated in the increased prevalence of childhood obesity. The home is usually the first place children learn about food, however, little is known about how parents determine child PS in the home environment. This narrative review aimed to explore parental beliefs, decisions, strategies and barriers to the provision of appropriate food PS for children in the home environment. Results indicate that parental decisions on child food PS are based on the amounts they serve themselves, personal intuition and knowledge of child appetite. Owing to the habitual nature of food provision, parental decisions on child PS may be taken without conscious thought and/or could be part of a complex decision-making process influenced by several interlinked factors, including parental childhood mealtime experiences, other family members and child weight status. Strategies to determine child-appropriate PS include modelling the desired PS behaviour, use of unit-based food packaging and PS estimation aids, and providing the child with a degree of autonomy to rely on their own appetite cues. A lack of knowledge/awareness of PS guidance is a key barrier identified by parents to the provision of age-appropriate PS, warranting the inclusion of salient child-appropriate PS guidance within national dietary recommendations. Further home-based interventions to improve the provision of appropriate child PS are required, leveraged on parental strategies already in use, as outlined in this review.

Food portion sizes: trends and drivers in an obesogenic environment

“…A recent narrative review demonstrated that parents make foodrelated decisions for their children based on their own consumption patterns, their own gut feelings and their understanding of their appetites (104) . Due to the routine nature of food provision, parental choices regarding their child's PS may be made automatically or as part of a complex process influenced by several interconnected factors, such as the child's weight status, other family members and the parents' own mealtime experiences as children.…”

“…Due to the routine nature of food provision, parental choices regarding their child's PS may be made automatically or as part of a complex process influenced by several interconnected factors, such as the child's weight status, other family members and the parents' own mealtime experiences as children. Parents might also base their judgements on PS on the amount of physical activity their children engage in; larger portions are served to youngsters who are thought to be more active (104) . Furthermore, although research suggests that customised nutritional advising systems are superior to general, one-size-fits-all approaches in improving health indices, these findings have been observed in adult populations (105) .…”