Infant formula feeding practices are an important consideration for obesity prevention. An infant’s diet is influential on their later risk of developing overweight or obesity, yet very little is known about infant formula feeding practices. It is plausible that certain modifiable practices may put children at higher risk of developing overweight or obesity, for example how much and how often a baby is fed. Understanding how parents use infant formula and what factors may influence this practice is therefore important. Moreover, parents who feed their infants formula have identified a lack of support and access to resources to guide them. Therefore this study aimed to explore parents’ infant formula feeding practices to understand how parents use infant formula and what factors may influence this practice. Using an explorative qualitative design, data were collected using semi-structured telephone interviews and analysed using a pragmatic inductive approach to thematic analysis. A total of 24 mothers from across Australia were interviewed. Mothers are influenced by a number of factors in relation to their infant formula feeding practice. These factors include information on the formula tin and marketing from formula manufacturers, particularly in relation to choosing the type of formula. Their formula feeding practices are also influenced by their interpretation of infant cues, and the amount of formula in the bottle. Many mothers would like more information to aid their practices but barriers exist to accessing health professional advice and support, so mothers may rely on informal sources. Some women reported that the social environment surrounding infant feeding wherein breastfeeding is promoted as the best option leads a feeling of stigma when formula feeding. Additional support for parents’ feeding their infants with formula is necessary. Health professionals and policy around infant formula use should include how formula information may be provided to parents who use formula in ways that do not undermine breastfeeding promotion. Further observational research should seek to understand the interaction between advice, interpretation of cues and the amount formula fed to infants.

Early intervention is critical for addressing the challenge of childhood obesity. Yet many preventive interventions do not target infants most at risk of future overweight or obesity. This systematic review examines interventions delivered before 2 years that aim to ameliorate excess weight gain among infants at high risk of overweight or obesity, due to sociodemographic characteristics, parental weight or health status, infant feeding or health behaviours. We searched six databases for interventions: (a) delivered before age two, (b) specifically aimed at infants at high risk of childhood obesity and (c) that reported outcomes by weight status beyond 28 days. The search identified over 27,000 titles, and 49 papers from 38 studies met inclusion criteria: 10 antenatal interventions, 16 postnatal and 12 conducted both before and after birth. Nearly all targeted infant and/or maternal nutrition. Studies varied widely in design, obesity risk factors, outcomes and quality. Overall, nine interventions of varying quality reported some evidence of significantly improved child weight trajectory, although effects tended to diminish over time. Interventions that improved weight outcomes tended to engage parents for a longer period, and most offered health professional input and support. Two studies of limited quality reported significantly worse weight outcomes in the intervention group.

Background: Childhood obesity is an increasing concern for parents and health professionals alike. Parents’ perception of obesity as a current health issue for their children is important for the everyday parenting and health choices parents make. As parents are frequently going online to seek and exchange information about parenting and child health, asynchronous online discussion forums provide an opportunity to investigate their perceptions and concerns. Understanding parents’ perceptions, beliefs and attitudes is important in any childhood obesity prevention and intervention. Aim: To explore parents’ perceptions, perspectives and concerns regarding childhood obesity expressed on asynchronous online discussion forums. Methods: A qualitative descriptive approach using template analysis to analyse a novel data collection strategy of 34 purposefully sampled threads from two Australian-based asynchronous online discussion forums. Results: Parents on the discussion forum displayed an understanding of childhood obesity as a public health concern, the discussion incorporated issues such as providing a healthy diet and lifestyle for children. Parents shared their own opinions and experiences that challenged or conceded to the status quo of the discussion. Parents discussed the role of health professionals in obesity prevention. There were varied opinions on the relevance of health professionals, particularly nurses, monitoring of growth and risk of obesity. Conclusion: This exploratory study highlights that parents perceive childhood obesity as an important public health concern, and that they understand the key public health messages of prevention and intervention. Yet, for many it is difficult to successfully implement these messages into their everyday lives. Health professionals need to play a key role in providing non-judgemental, innovative support and advice to parents to successfully implement prevention and intervention strategies.

Breastfeeding is beneficial to both the mother and infant, yet many infants are either partially or fully fed with formula milk. Those parents feeding with formula receive less support from professional sources than those breastfeeding and may rely on more non‐professional sources for advice, and this contributes to negative emotional experiences such as guilt. This paper explores the sources of advice for formula feeding, factors associated with using professional or non‐professional sources and compares these sources with those used for breastfeeding advice. A secondary analysis of Australian survey data from 270 mothers was performed. Mothers of six‐month‐old infants participated in an online survey, providing information on advice they received or read about formula feeding and/or breastfeeding from professional and non‐professional sources. A fifth of mothers who were formula feeding did not receive any formula feeding advice from professional sources, and only a small fraction (4.5%) of mothers breastfeeding did not received any breastfeeding advice from professional sources. Compared with those mothers breastfeeding receiving breastfeeding advice, fewer mothers formula feeding receive formula feeding advice from both professional and non‐professional sources. The tin of formula was the most used source of formula advice. Mothers feeding with formula at six months were more likely to have received formula feeding advice from professional sources if they had been fully formula feeding before their infant was under the age of three months. Further research is needed to understand the specific barriers to accessing formula feeding advice and what other factors influence access to formula feeding advice.