Objective To compare differences in feeding practice and the preschool children's eating behavior between the mothers with normal body weight and overweight/obesity and to provide evidences for conducting efficient health education on healthy eating behavior among preschool children.
Methods With stratified random sampling, we conducted a cross-sectional survey among 1 157 mothers of children aged 3 – 6 years in Hangzhou city of Zhejiang province in October 2016. Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire and Eating Behavior Questionnaire for Small Children were adopted to assess the mothers' feeding pattern and their children's eating behaviors and to analyze the differences in the two variables by different maternal body weight.
Results Compared to the mothers with healthy weight, the mothers with overweight/obesity were graded with an obviously higher score for control on eating of their children (2.69 ± 0.53 vs. 2.21 ± 0.42), but lower scores for establishing good dietary environment at home (3.81 ± 0.72), promoting balanced and diversified diet (4.01 ± 0.45), and making a good model of healthy eating for their children (2.91 ± 0.65). Based on the reporting of their mothers, the preschool children with overweight or obesity were assessed with higher scores of preference for beverages (3.44 ± 0.58) and preference for some food (3.91 ± 0.64) but with a lower score for response to satiety (1.97 ± 0.63) compared to the children with healthly weight.
Conclusion The mothers with overweight/obesity tend to adopt less healthy feeding behavior than the mothers with healthy weight and the preschool children with maternal overweight/obesity are more likely to have unhealthy eating behavior such as preferences for beverages or some food.
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