The relationship between parental feeding behaviors and child eating behaviors and BMI in healthy pre-school children

Objective: It was aimed to investigate the relationship between parent child feeding behaviors and child eating behavior in preschool children and the factors affecting VKI, and to determine the effect of parent's behavior and child eating behavior on child VKI. Methods: Our study, which was planned as a cross-sectional analytical study, was carried out by applying the 'Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ)' and'Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ) face-to-face interviews with a questionnaire questioning the demographic characteristics of 800 healthy children aged 2-5 who are registered to Family Health Centers in the central districts of Izmir. Data analysis were performed using the SPSS 22.0 program, Chi-Square, Fisher's Exact test, Spearman Correlation Analysis and p <0.05 was considered significant. Results: 8.8% of the children participating in the study are thin and 11.5% are obese. It was determined that 94.3% of the children received breast milk, 47.4% were fed with formula, 68.9% of them switched to supplementary food between 4-6 months. It was found that most of the children (80.1%) had a snack, 51.8% had eating problems, and those with eating problems had the most frequent "low appetite" problem with 62.2%. It has been determined that as the child progresses from thin to obese, the BMI of mothers and fathers increases; as the educational status of the father increases, the ratio of underweight, overweight and obese children decreases (p = 0.031); formula feeding increases the rates of overweight and obesity. It was found that children who were reported to have eating problems were thinner, and those who were reported to have no eating problems were more overweight and obese. In the correlation analysis; for CFQ the perceived child (=0.137; p <0.01) and parent weight (= 0.237; p <0.05) and BMI were in low degree of significant associations and for CEBQ food responsiveness (β = 0.191; p <0.01), enjoyment of food (= 0.175; p <0.01) and BMI were in low degree of significant associations and also CEBQ-CFQ factors were in moderate and low degree of significant associations. Conclusion: Although the genetic role of obesity cannot be denied, it can be said that children's health and being healthy adults depend on growing up in a healthy eating environment. This foundation is laid in childhood, and the preschool period is a period when many habits that form the basis for adulthood are developed and special attention should be paid to child nutrition