The eating habits of mothers and their pre-school children in Japan

Abstract

Background The eating habits of mothers and children in infancy are important. It is not only impact their own present health, but may effect children's health of lifelong, since early childhood is a crucial moment to formulate basic lifestyle habits. The mothers raise children in infancy could implement healthy lifestyle to prevent lifestyle related diseases of children in future. The aim of this study is to describe eating habits of mothers and their children in Japan. Method A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to women who have children whose age were 3 to 6-years-old at three nursing schools in a regional town, Japan. The questionnaire was about their demographics, lifestyle, and eating habits of mothers and their children. Results In total, 113 women were answered. We excluded the women's data with missing variables. As a result of the exclusion, 95 mothers and their children were the analysis subjects for this research. There were no mothers and children who were on a dietetic treatment. The mean age of women was 36.4 ± 5.3-years-old. The mean age of their children was 4.5 ± 1.0-years-old. The mean body mass index (BMI) of mothers was 21.8 ± 3.4. The mean Kaup index of children was 15.5 ± 1.8. There were 13 (13.7%) women who were underweight (BMI is below 18.5), 68 (71.6%) women were normal weight status (BMI is 18.5 to 24.9), and 14 (14.7%) women who were in overweight status (BMI is more than 25.0). There were 34 (35.8%) children who were underweight (Kaup index is below 15.0), and 68 children who were in normal weight status (Kaup index is 15.0 to 17.9). The number of children who were in overweight status (Kaup index is more than 18.0) was 14 (14.7%). In this study, many mothers and their children had good eating habits. For example, most of the mothers (80.0%) and their children (91.6%) were eating breakfast every day. There was no association between mothers’ and children's good eating habits. While, there were 73 (76.8%) children and 70 (73.7%) mothers who do something at meals, as an example, they were in the habit of watching television while eating. The agreement of this habitual practice between mothers and children was substantial by kappa statistics (κ = 0.633). In regards to dietary supplements use, four children (4.2%) were using dietary supplements including calcium, minerals, or multivitamins, and one child used it before. On the other hand, 47 (49.7%) mothers used to have dietary supplement, and 11 (11.7%) mothers were using some supplements. Discussion The rate of dietary supplements use among Japanese children is lower than children in the United States, Australia and China. We, however, suppose that Japanese children using dietary supplements increase thought the effectiveness is not clear yet. A previous study showed that Japanese mothers who were supplement user tended to use dietary supplements for their children. The number of women who have experience of dietary use is increasing in Japan. There, therefore, is possibility of using supplement for children will increase in Japan. Health education including dietary supplements use is a pressing public health issue to develop healthy dietary habits for mothers and children.