Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The problem of obesity and being overweight in childhood has assumed particular importance in Public Health. In Italy about 1 million children are overweight. In contemporary society, there are many families in which both parents work and often grandparents take care of their grandchildren, also taking care of their nutrition. The aim of this study was to understand the perceived role of grandmothers on the eating habits of preschool children through the perception of mothers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Qualitative survey, conducted with phenomenological methodology according to Cohen, focused on the interview of ten women with at least one preschool child (4-6 years old) who stated they were helped by the childrens’ grandmothers. The convenience sampling was carried out at the Association of Social Promotion “Neomamme” in the city of Monopoli (BA), from September 2017 to October 2017. RESULTS: The following topics emerged from the phenomenological analysis: 1) Time with grandparents, in which the sub-theme relating to the eating discipline adopted or not by the caregivers emerged 2) Food and the sense of guilt 3) The perception of the child’s appearance, within which the sub-theme relating to strategies to prevent the child becoming overweight emerged. DISCUSSION: The phenomenological analysis highlighted the importance of the support of grandparents (in particular of the maternal grandmother) in food education. The paternal grandparents are indulgent (often in relation to the limited time they spend with their grandchildren) and tend to use food as a vehicle for positive emotions. The analysis also highlighted the inclination of most mothers to use play or reading rather than food as a tool to compensate for their distance during the day. The analysis also found that mothers have a perception of the normality of their children’s body and that this is the result of combining attention to diet and sports.
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