Qualitative Assessment of Teachers’ Opinion on the Early Childhood Nutrition Education

Abstract

Theory, Prior Research, Rationale: Recent research suggests that breastfeeding could protect against obesity. The age-appropriate body weight increase was consistently reported among breast-fed infants, but fewer studies were conducted in later childhood and with mixed results. Data from WIC toddlers from different ethnic groups would help close the knowledge gap. Study Design, Setting, Participants, and Intervention: The data are drawn from the Nashville Children EatingWell (CHEW) for Health Nutrition Survey. Participants were 150WIC families with children aged 2 to 4 years who are African American, Hispanic orWhite in the Nashville metropolitan area. Outcome, Measures and Analysis: Breastfeeding variables, anthropometric measures of children and mothers, and mothers’ other demographic variables were included in the analyses. Chi-square tests and ANOVA were applied for group comparisons. Results: Nearly half (47%) of the children were exclusively bottle-fed. The most common reason for bottle-feeding was mothers’ perceived difficulties (28%). Among breast-fed children, 63% were also fed formula at the same time (mixed-feeding). Mixed feeding was more prevalent among Hispanic toddlers (52.5%)(P<0.0001), and resulted in more obese toddlers (22.4%) than breast-feeding only and bottle-feeding only (P<0.05).However, breastfeeding for# 3 months did not differ from exclusively bottle-feeding in children’s adiposity. Conclusions and Implications: Mixed-feeding and bottle-feeding were related to a higher risk of obesity whereas short term breast-feeding may not protect ageappropriate weight gain among toddlers. Results from the current study suggest that breastfeeding promotion is important among WIC participants, in particular for the Hispanic population. Funding: NIFA.