Longitudinal associations between food parenting practices and dietary intake in preschool children: The ToyBox Study

Paloma Flores-Barrantes; Pilar De Miguel-Etayo; Iris Iglesia; Mai Jm ChinAPaw; Greet Cardon; Marieke De Craemer; Violeta Iotova; Natalya Usheva; Zbigniew Kułaga; Aneta Kotowska; Berthold Koletzko; Julia Birnbaum; Yannis Manios; Odysseas Androutsos; Luis A Moreno; E Leigh Gibson; ToyBox-study Group

doi:10.1016/j.nut.2024.112454

Longitudinal associations between food parenting practices and dietary intake in preschool children: The ToyBox Study

Nutrition. 2024 Aug:124:112454. doi: 10.1016/j.nut.2024.112454. Epub 2024 Apr 6.

Authors

Paloma Flores-Barrantes¹, Pilar De Miguel-Etayo¹, Iris Iglesia², Mai Jm ChinAPaw³, Greet Cardon⁴, Marieke De Craemer⁵, Violeta Iotova⁶, Natalya Usheva⁷, Zbigniew Kułaga⁸, Aneta Kotowska⁸, Berthold Koletzko⁹, Julia Birnbaum⁹, Yannis Manios¹⁰, Odysseas Androutsos¹¹, Luis A Moreno¹, E Leigh Gibson¹²; ToyBox-study Group

Affiliations

¹ Growth, Exercise, Nutrition and Development (GENUD) Research Group, University of Zaragoza, Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón (IA2), Instituto De Investigación Sanitaria Aragón (IIS Aragón), Zaragoza, Spain; CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
² Growth, Exercise, Nutrition and Development (GENUD) Research Group, University of Zaragoza, Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón (IA2), Instituto De Investigación Sanitaria Aragón (IIS Aragón), Zaragoza, Spain; Primary Care Interventions to Prevent Maternal and Child Chronic Diseases of Perinatal and Developmental Origin Network (RICORS), RD21/0012/0012, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: iglesia@unizar.es.
³ Amsterdam UMC, location Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Ghent University. Ghent, Belgium.
⁵ Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
⁶ Department of Paediatrics, Medical University Varna, Bulgaria.
⁷ Department of Social Medicine and Health Care Organization, Medical University of Varna, Varna, Bulgaria.
⁸ Public Health Department, The Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, Poland.
⁹ Division of Metabolic and Nutritional Medicine, Department of Paediatrics, Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital, LMU-Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Munich, Germany.
¹⁰ Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Health Sciences & Education, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece; Institute of Agri-food and Life Sciences, Hellenic Mediterranean University Research Centre, Heraklion, Greece.
¹¹ Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Health Sciences & Education, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece; Lab of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Physical Education, Sport Science and Dietetics, University of Thessaly, Trikala, Greece.
¹² School of Psychology, University of Roehampton, London, United Kingdom.

PMID: 38788341
DOI: 10.1016/j.nut.2024.112454

Abstract

Introduction: Food Parenting Practices (FPPs) include the practices parents use in the act of feeding their children, which may further influence their health.

Objectives: To assess associations between changes in FPPs (permissiveness, food availability, guided choices, water encouragement, rules and limits and the use of food as reward) over 1 year and dietary intake (water, energy-dense/nutrient-poor and nutrient-dense foods) at follow-up in 4- to 6-year-old preschool-aged children.

Methods: Longitudinal data from the control group of the ToyBox study, a cluster-randomized controlled intervention study, was used (NCT02116296). Multilevel ordinal logistic regression analyses including FPP as the independent variables and dietary intake as outcome.

Results: Nine hundred sixty-four parent-child dyads (50.5% boys and 95.0% mothers) were included. Limited changes on the use of FPPs were observed over time. Nevertheless, in boys, often having F&V at home was associated with higher F&V consumption (OR = 6.92 [1.58; 30.38]), and increasing home availability of F&V was directly associated with higher water consumption (OR = 7.62 [1.63; 35.62]). Also, not having sweets or salty snacks available at home was associated with lower consumption of desserts (OR = 4.34 [1.75; 10.75]). In girls, having F&V availability was associated with higher F&V consumption (OR = 6.72 [1.52; 29.70]) and lower salty snack consumption (OR = 3.26 [1.50; 7.10]) and never having soft drinks at home was associated with lower consumption of sweets (OR = 7.89 [6.32; 9.86]). Also, never being permissive about soft drink consumption was associated with lower soft drink consumption (OR = 4.09 [2.44; 6.85]).

Conclusion: Using favorable FPPs and avoiding the negative ones is prospectively associated with healthier dietary intake, especially of F&V, and less intake of soft drinks, desserts, and salty snacks.

Keywords: Energy-dense/nutrient-poor foods; European children; Food parenting practices; Longitudinal study; Nutrient-dense foods.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

Child
Child, Preschool
Diet* / methods
Diet* / statistics & numerical data
Feeding Behavior / psychology
Female
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Parent-Child Relations
Parenting*