Evaluation of mother's attitudes towards pre-school children's nutrition

EVALUATION OF MOTHER'S ATTITUDES TOWARDS PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN'S NUTRITION SUMMARY It is important to evaluate the attitudes of mothers towards their children's nutrition since they play an important role in the formation of children's eating habits. The aim of this study is to evaluate the attitudes of mothers with pre-school children towards their nutrition habits and to determine the effects of these attitudes on the children's body mass index (BMI). This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with the mothers (n=322) of children aged 4-6 who met the sample selection criteria, agreed to participate in the study and who were all in independent kindergartens affiliated to the Directorate of National Education in located in the Central Anatolian region between 2019-2020. The data were collected using the "Introductory Form for Mother, Introductory Form for Child and Introductory Form for Child's Nutritional Habits" and the "Mother's Attitudes Towards the Feeding Process Scale (MATFPS)". BMI (kg/m2) of all children was determined. SPSS and appropriate statistical evaluations were used for statistical analysis. In the study, MATFPS total mean score of mothers with pre-school children was 60.09±17.60, and the problems related to the attitudes of mothers towards the feeding process were moderate. MATFPS mean scores of mothers of children born 1000-2000 gr, 2000-3000 gr, 3000-4000 gr and 4000-5000 gr were found 74.25±22.69, 64.07±16.91, 58.47±17.00, and 52.79±17.77, respectively. It was determined that there was a significant difference in the scale mean score of the mothers in comparison to the birth weights of the children (p=0.004). It was determined that 19.4% of the children in the study were underweight, 10.0% were at risk of being underweight, 47.6% were normal weight, 10.5% were slightly overweight, 12.0% were obese. It was observed that the difference between MATFPS score averages was highly significant (p<0.001). As a result, it was observed that negative maternal attitudes during the feeding process negatively affected height, weight and BMI, which are indicators of growth and development in children. In this respect, pediatric nurses can be recommended to monitor and evaluate the growth and development of children, to compare them with children of the same age, to inform mothers by identifying deviations from normal in the early period, and to provide counseling to mothers in order to develop positive attitudes. Keywords: Pre-schooler, nurse, nutrition, mother, attitude.