The effect of maternal attitudes and behaviors in the complementary feeding period on food selectivity in preschool children

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between maternal attitudes and behaviors during the complementary feeding period and food selectivity in preschool children. The study was conducted with 150 participants consisting of mothers of children aged 2-6 years who applied to the General Pediatrics Polyclinic of Başkent University Ankara Hospital, Department of Pediatrics between December 2022 and February 2023. Data were collected with a questionnaire to determine the sociodemographic and general characteristics of mothers and children, general information about children's nutrition, biochemical parameters, maternal attitudes and nutritional behaviors of children. According to the weight and height of the children from the weight for age, height for age and body mass index (BMI) for age percentile and z-score values were calculated. The mean age of the children was 43.8±11.04 months (3.6±0.92 years). 51.3% of the children were girls and 48.7% of them were boys. There was a weak negative correlation between the total scores of the early childhood period adaptive eating behavior scale and the age of the child (r=-0.196, p<0.05). In addition, there was no statistically significant difference between girls and boys in the total scores of the early childhood period adaptive eating behavior scale (p>0.05). When the distribution of according to age BMI percentile of the children was examined, it was determined that 4.0% was skinny, 6.0% was underweight, 68.0% was normal, 13.3% was slightly obese, and 8.7% was obese. In this study, no significant correlation was found between the early childhood period adaptive eating behavior scale scores and the percentile values of the children participating in the study (p>0.05). A moderate positive correlation was observed between the total scores of the mother's attitudes towards the feeding process scale and the total scores of the early childhood period adaptive eating behavior scale (r=0.699, p<0.001). However, there was no statistically significant difference between the total scores of the mothers' attitudes towards the feeding process scale of mothers who had baby-led weaning (BLW) and mothers who did not (p>0.05). It was also determined that the aggression and reaction to the main meal order scores of the children who consumed pureed vegetables until the ninth month were higher than those who did not consume them (p<0.05). In conclusion, it is thought that maternal attitudes and behaviors may affect the food selectivity of preschool children. Moreover, it is believed that by emphasizing the importance of complementary nutrition education to mothers and evaluating maternal attitudes, problems related to eating behaviors in children will be reduced. Keywords: maternal attitudes and behaviors, food selectivity, complementary feeding, nutrition in preschool children This study was approved by Baskent University Institutional Review Board and Ethics Committee (Project no: KA22/454) on 16/11/2022 with decision number 22/195 and supported by Baskent University Research Fund.