“Soda, fries, and chips everyday”: Parents' perception of nutrition, healthy weight, and child feeding practices in Bangladesh

Background: Like many other low-income countries, Bangladesh is grappling with childhood malnutrition, however ironically among the small urban affluent populations childhood overweight is on the rise. A 2008 study reports that among the infants prevalence of obesity and overweight might range between 14% and 26%. Parents play important roles in shaping children's eating behavior, unfortunately many are increasing consumption of fat, processed meats, snack foods and fast foods for their young children while lowering their consumption of fish and vegetables This study seeks to understand parents' perception of breastfeeding, healthy diet, nutrition, and ideal weight for their children (ages 0-5), and describe the challenges they face. Methods: twenty-two in-depth interviews were conducted with urban upper class parents recruited through snowball sampling technique. Computer software Nvivo 9 was used to code and analyze the transcribed interviews. Results: Most parents hold positive attitudes towards breastfeeding. While western-style foods were reported as preferred option for children, there was a lack of awareness about health risks of childhood overweight. When they were displayed pictures of overweight babies, only a few identified them as overweight. Older relatives and TV were listed as two important sources of information about child feeding. Their accounts suggested that there is social and familial pressure to overfeed (indulgent feeding) the child since “chubbiness” in children is encouraged and seen as a sign of health. Discussion: Findings of this study call for the need to develop and implement culturally sensitive health education programs for parents to prevent this rising health problem.