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Many mothers must navigate among the many family tips and dietary experts for their babies. Nevertheless, nutrition educators generally focus only on the mother, even in Latin American communities where grandmothers and other older women often play an important role in caring for children.
A new study shows that programs to reduce childhood obesity and other nutrition programs should include all family members who regularly take care of children, not just their mothers.
Ann Cheney, Assistant Professor at the UC Riverside School of Medicine's Center for Healthy Communities, co-directed the study with Tanya Nieri, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at UCR. The study focused on food and nutrition in low-income Latin American families and sought to generate ideas for the development of prevention programs. obesity in young children based on mothers' experiences.
"Mothers are busy, we can not badume that only the mother is feeding her baby," Cheney said. "In many cultures, older women in the family and community help with childcare and explain to new mothers how, when, and what to feed their baby."
Researchers talked about feeding babies with 19 women with a child under 2 enrolled in Early Head Start programs in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The participants were Latinos, mainly of Mexican origin. Many lived in extended families including in-laws or other members of their original family. A little more than half spoke English as the dominant language, the others spoke mostly Spanish.
Through Early Head Start nutrition education, mothers learned a lot about healthy diets for babies, but had to deal with conflicting ideas from older parents. They knew, for example, that doctors did not recommend giving solid foods to babies under six months of age, as this increased the risk of obesity. But many of them were invited by their own mother, mother-in-law or grandmothers to give their baby oatmeal, mashed rice and beans or other soft foods to help their baby. to feel fuller and gain weight, even though mothers think their babies are too thin.
Mothers also did not give sugar to their babies, but older women in their families often asked them to add sugar to milk or other foods so the baby would eat more. In addition, these parents often fed the children, which made it harder for the mother to follow the healthy nutritional recommendations she had learned from the Early Head Start program.
Some of the older members of the family had grown food insecure and did not want their grandchildren to do the same. For older generations, chubby babies with full stomachs were healthy babies. Although their advice comes from love and concern for the baby's health, the mothers knew that some of the grandparents' recommendations could lead to obesity and other health problems.
Mothers used two strategies to balance their child's healthy diet in order to preserve family harmony. They could accept the parent's instructions during face-to-face interactions, but later, feed the child as they pleased. They could also use this opportunity to educate the family member by saying "no" and explain why. Most mothers used both strategies in different situations and with different family members.
"It's sometimes hard to say no to the family." But we think about the well-being of our children because our (family) roots are very strong, "said one participant in the study." But families also need to learn new methods. "
The authors concluded that government-sponsored nutrition education programs, such as Early Head Start Nutrition Education, prioritized the dynamics of the nuclear family and identified parents as primary caregivers. The researchers recommended that nutrition education programs recognize the diversity of families and take into account other family arrangements, including extended families, and programs should integrate extended families with the parents of the child. .
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The research was a partnership between the Center for Healthy Communities and the Early Head Start programs of the UCR School of Medicine in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. In addition to Cheney and Nieri, the authors include Elizabeth Davis, Joe Prologo, Esmirna Valencia, Ashaunta T. Anderson, Keith Widaman, Christina Reaves and Greer Sullivan. The document entitled "Sociocultural factors underlying the feeding practices of infants of Latin mothers" was published on 1 February Global Qualitative Research in Nursing.
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