To explore family members' influences on mothers' feeding practices of preschoolers in Chilean families residing in vulnerable neighborhoods from the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, Chile. Qualitative study. Nine child care centers in Región Metropolitana, Santiago, Chile. Twenty-four mothers and one father of preschool children. Photo-elicitation techniques were applied to 25 semi-structured interviews and their subsequent inductive thematic analysis of family influences. The participants described that the family influences on their feeding practices depended on the family structure and the interpersonal closeness between relatives. Some influences directly affected child eating behavior, especially in relatives who live together, while others were mediated by the relationships generated between parents and other members of the family. Fathers, in two-parent families, and grandparents are the most influential relatives on the participants' feeding practices. Generally, fathers participated and were in line with the mother's feeding practices of their children. Grandparents enriched their grandchildren's eating experiences by offering homemade preparations, expressing affection with food, including unhealthy options, and supporting parents to diversifying and structuring feeding practices. According to their interpersonal closeness or cohabitation, parental feeding practices and child eating behaviors were impacted by family members and their dynamics. The development of strategies to prevent and treat childhood obesity should consider a family approach in vulnerable families.

Objective: Childhood obesity is considered one of the most important public health problems around the world. Chile is currently one of the Latin American countries with a high prevalence of childhood obesity. Given that parents’ food parenting practices shape their children’s lifelong eating habits, addressing those practices is key to curbing later problems of obesity. However, studies of the influences on Chilean parents’ food parenting practices are scarce. Hence, this study explores factors that influence food parenting practices of preschool-aged children in Chile.Design: Qualitative research, using interviews with the photo-elicitation technique.Setting: Metropolitan Region, ChileParticipants: Twenty-five parents from families recruited from public childcare centres.Results: Through a thematic analysis with an inductive approach, we identified five themes that influence food parenting practices: (1) parents’ previous experiences and how they determine their current goals and beliefs; (2) responses to the child’s characteristics; (3) the influences of other family members, especially grandparents; (4) parents’ nutritional knowledge; and (5) living contexts, especially limited budgets and lack of time.Conclusions: The study reveals multilevel influences, which converge at the family level, on food parenting practices. A family-centrerd approach that addresses the mentioned influences is necessary to improve the management of the childhood obesity problem in Chile.

While a growing body of literature looks at the associations between food parenting practices, and feeding styles, and child’s weight status in developed countries, little is known for less developed countries, in general, and the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, in particular. This study systemically reviews and synthesizes existing evidence on the associations between child caregivers’ food parenting practices and feeding styles and 2 to 12-year-old child weight status. Keywords were used to search in PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. Among the ten eligible articles, all of them reported significant associations between food parenting practices and feeding styles and child weight status. Existing studies have limitations, mainly related to cross-sectional convenience samples, which limit the generalization of the results. Additionally, small sample, heterogeneous feeding measures and weight related outcomes were other limitations. Future research is needed to understand caregiver–child interactions in the food situation and its link to child weight status in 2 to 12-year-old children in areas of LAC with diverse forms of malnutrition and contextual factors of countries.

Autistic children often experience eating difficulties due to sensory processing, food selectivity, and other eating behaviors. As a result, the feeding process can be particularly challenging for caregivers and professionals in healthcare and educational settings. This scoping review describes interventions that address feeding difficulties, focused on improving food acceptance and reducing challenging eating-related behavior in autistic children under 6 years. The review was conducted and reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. We searched the PubMed, Web of Science (WOS), and PsycINFO databases, as well as manually examined reference lists, to identify relevant articles. Nineteen studies were selected by two independent reviewers for inclusion in the review. Among the selected studies, a variety of effective feeding strategies were categorized into three groups: applied behavior analysis (ABA)-based interventions, a combination of ABA-based strategies with others, and emerging strategies beyond ABA. These interventions have been reported to increase the acceptance of foods and reduce challenging mealtime behaviors of autistic children. Future research should focus on developing comprehensive interventions to improve the quality of life of autistic children, their families, and their communities.

Chile, like many other countries in the world, is experiencing a high prevalence of childhood overweight. Among the factors influencing children’s eating behaviors are the food parenting practices promoted by community organizations. More information is needed on the influences of these recommendations on the parenting practices of parents of preschoolers. This study examined what types of food parenting practices are promoted in childcare and primary healthcare centers and how these recommendations influence subsequent parental behavior. Interviews using photo-elicitation were conducted with 25 parents of Chilean preschoolers. The interviews were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Five themes were identified to describe food parenting practices promoted by community organizations and the influences that these practices had on parents of preschoolers. Healthcare centers were found to educate parents and provided a structured feeding. However, parents found their advice regarding dietary restriction challenging to follow. Childcare centers also provided information about healthy diet, food monitoring, and diversifying the child’s diet in a way that was perceived as adequate. While childcare centers encouraged structured and autonomous food parenting practices in a positive and supportive manner, healthcare centers tended to provide more restrictive guidance that posed challenges for parents struggling with preschool nutritional care.