Child eating habits and its relation to parental practices and nutritional knowledge

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between parental feeding practices, parental nutritional knowledge, and child feeding habits reported by parents in four educational institutions in southwestern Colombia. Method: Observational study with correlational cross-sectional design. Data were analysed from 1.162 parents of children enroled in grades from preschool to third grade from four public educational institutions. Parents answered self -report questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed. Results: The children's diet is characterised by frequent consumption of ultra -processed food and a lower consumption of fruits and vegetables. Relationships were found between responsive parenting practices and healthy food consumption in children, as well as between authoritarian and permissive practices with frequent consumption of ultra -processed foods. The level of nutritional knowledge of parents was not related to the children's diet; however, a relationship was found between responsive parenting practices, a low level of nutritional knowledge of parents, and a low frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption in children. Conclusion: Eating is a complex phenomenon and involves the interaction between individual and contextual factors. To this extent, the promotion of healthy habits involves joint work at multiple levels of interaction. The results of this study are expected to allow the construction of timely interdisciplinary interventions in low- and middle -income populations in the observed territory.