Exploring parents’ perspectives on feeding their young children: a qualitative study using photo-elicitation in Chile

OBJECTIVE: Childhood obesity is considered one of the most important public health problems around the world. Chile is currently one of the Latin American countries with a high prevalence of childhood obesity. Given that parents’ food parenting practices shape their children’s lifelong eating habits, addressing those practices is key to curbing later problems of obesity. However, studies of the influences on Chilean parents’ food parenting practices are scarce. Hence, this study explores factors that influence food parenting practices of preschool-aged children in Chile. DESIGN: Qualitative research, using interviews with the photo-elicitation technique. SETTING: Metropolitan Region, Chile PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-five parents from families recruited from public childcare centres. RESULTS: Through a thematic analysis with an inductive approach, we identified five themes that influence food parenting practices: (1) parents’ previous experiences and how they determine their current goals and beliefs; (2) responses to the child’s characteristics; (3) the influences of other family members, especially grandparents; (4) parents’ nutritional knowledge; and (5) living contexts, especially limited budgets and lack of time. CONCLUSIONS: The study reveals multilevel influences, which converge at the family level, on food parenting practices. A family-centrerd approach that addresses the mentioned influences is necessary to improve the management of the childhood obesity problem in Chile.