Dificultades de alimentación en la primera infancia y su relación con las prácticas parentales de alimentación

The objectives of this study were to describe the feeding practices of parents who have children in early childhood, as well as to compare those parents of children with and without feeding difficulties (FD). Participants were 93 fathers/ mothers between 20 and 44 years old, 33 of them had children with FD. The fathers/mothers completed the feeding section of the Parenting Practices Questionnaire to promote Early Childhood Health Habits (PCHS, for its acronym in Spanish), which assess responsive, non-responsive, indulgent and negligent practices; in addition, they answered eight questions aimed at investigating the context of child feeding. Most of parents reported using responsive practices (monitoring, setting limits and modeling); however, parents of children with FD also highlighted the use of non-responsive practices (e.g., pressure or nagging their children to eat), indulgences (e.g., feeding the child in the place the child chooses) and negligent (e.g. leave the child alone at the time of eating). The results base that interaction in feeding situations is as important as the quality and quantity of food consumed by the child, making it possible to visualize the problem of FD in early childhood.