Association between Children’s Eating Habits and the Level of Knowledge of Nutrition of Guardians

Abstract

Nutrition has a major influence on health throughout life, but the first years of life in children are vital for forging good eating habits, because their adoption at this stage will last for the rest of their lives. A child who learns to eat correctly will have the prevention of non-communicable diseases in his or her favor. One of the causes of malnutrition in children may be the ignorance of parents or guardians about good nutrition, since they are the main people who feed them. The present study aims to relate parents’ knowledge on healthy nutritional habits with the eating habits of their kids. The target population were parents with children between three to five years from San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco, Mexico. This study is a mixed, descriptive, non-experimental cross-sectional design. A pilot test was conducted with a sample of 32 tutors, with prior informed consent. Test used: Adapted versions of “Encuesta sobre hábitos alimentarios de Durán y Cols” (“Eating Habits Survey from Duran et al.”), and “Nivel del conocimiento sobre nutrición de Leiba y Rosali” (“Knowledge level about Nutrition from Laiba & Rosali”). The analyses showed that there is no significant difference between parents’ level of knowledge and children’s eating habits, since 62.5% of the participants showed a high level of knowledge while 40.6% of children have good eating habits. However, further research is needed. Although most of the parents interviewed showed a high level of knowledge in nutrition, they do not apply this knowledge on a regular basis in the eating habits of their children, this could be due to the fact that they are influenced by food habits, economic factors, and others.