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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Ana C. Lindsay, MPH, DrPH¹, Katarina M. Sussner, AM, MPH², Mary Greaney, PhD, MPH¹, and Karen E. Peterson, RD, DSc³. (1) Public Health Nutrition, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Room 310A, Boston, MA 02115, 617-432-0983, ana_lindsay@harvard.edu, (2) Anthropology, Harvard University, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02138, (3) Nutrition and Society Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115

Objectives: To examine mothers' feeding practices and perceptions of infant weight status, and to understand how these factors may influence children's dietary intake and the development of overweight in preschool years. Methods: Qualitative research, including focus group discussions with low-income, multi-ethnic, primarily Latino women enrolled in an ongoing nutrition and physical activity intervention trial in the Boston area who have delivered a live-born baby in the past 36 months. Results: Our results showed that many of the mothers' beliefs and practices regarding child feeding and weight status are influenced by cultural and family traditions, which sometimes appear to override guidelines for infant feeding. Furthermore, the influence of family members' beliefs, especially grandmothers, on mothers' child feeding practices was strong. Social and environmental influences on children's diet and mothers' feeding practices were also evident. Mothers reported facing many barriers to providing a healthful diet and to fostering healthy eating habits of their children including multiple, competing demands such as work and family demands, lack of time and financial constraints, child being in daycare, etc. Conclusions: Findings from this study add to the existing information on how Latino, immigrant mothers' child feeding practices are developed within their existing socio-cultural environment and help identify potential barriers that mothers in this population face in making healthy feeding choices for their children. Our findings suggest that nutrition education interventions targeting ethnically diverse groups need to take into account the relationship between family members' beliefs and mothers' child-feeding practices.

Learning Objectives: 1. Identify barriers that low-income, Latino immigrant mothers may face to provide healthy diets for their children within the context of the nutrition and economic transition faced by these countries. 2. Understand how mothers’ feeding practices and perceptions of child weight status may influence the development of overweight during the preschool years. 3. Understand how qualitative methods that can be used to

• assess mothers’ child feeding practices and perceptions of child weight status, and
• explore the role of socio-demographic, socio-cultural and feeding environment influences on these practices.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No