ResearchCurrent ResearchChild-Feeding Strategies Are Associated with Maternal Concern about Children Becoming Overweight, but not Children’s Weight Status
Section snippets
Selection of Study Participants
Data used for our cross-sectional study were from the Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System (PedNSS) from four clinics in Minnesota. Three were suburban local agencies in the Twin Cities area of St Paul and Minneapolis and the remaining clinic was a rural local agency that had fairly high participation. The PedNSS, managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is a surveillance system that continually monitors the growth, anemia, and breastfeeding status of low-income US
Measured Weight-for-Height Status of Children
Mean BMI-for-age z scores of the male and female children were similar (Table 1). Although girls had a slightly higher prevalence of being at risk of overweight than boys, the differences were not statistically significant. Mean BMI-for-age z scores were higher among 3- and 4-year-old children than among 2-year-olds, indicating an upward shift in the BMI-for-age distribution for the older compared with younger children. Still, the proportion of 3- and 4-year-old children who were underweight or
Discussion
This study revealed that nearly one in four overweight Hispanic and white preschoolers were correctly classified as overweight by his or her mother. None of the six overweight African-American children was classified as overweight by his or her mother. This finding emphasizes the importance of accurately measuring weight-for-height status in all public health and clinical settings to monitor the growth of preschool-aged children. This finding further emphasizes the importance of communicating
Conclusions
Our results indicate a need for continued research on the influence of parental concerns and feeding strategies on child overweight, particularly in low-income populations. Future studies should re-examine the influence of child-feeding strategies using additional questions on parental child-feeding practices. A more thorough examination of maternal restriction is recommended because a recent review of the literature identifies restriction as having the most consistent association with child
A. L. May is a doctoral degree candidate, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park; at the time of the study, she was a research assistant, Maternal and Child Nutrition Branch, Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.
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A. L. May is a doctoral degree candidate, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park; at the time of the study, she was a research assistant, Maternal and Child Nutrition Branch, Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.
M. Donohue is a nutritionist and P. Faulkner is nutrition unit supervisor, WIC Program, Division of Family and Community Health, Minnesota Department of Health, St Paul.
K. S. Scanlon and B. Sherry are epidemiologists, and K. Dalenius is a data systems and surveillance team leader, Maternal and Child Nutrition Branch, Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.
L. L. Birch is a distinguished professor of human development and family studies, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.