Parental Engagement in Infant Obesity Preventative Interventions: Maternal Awareness, Barriers, and Facilitators Identified in a Cross-Sectional Survey.

OBJECTIVES: Although close to 1 in 10 children under age 2 gain excess weight and can remain overweight throughout life, engaging parents in early preventative interventions is challenging because they may not recognize the issue of overweight in infancy. This study aimed to inform knowledge about maternal perceptions of infant obesity, to investigate topics of interest for program content and identify barriers and facilitators to parental engagement.

METHODS: Mothers (N = 240) of 0 to 24-month-old children completed an online cross-sectional survey.

RESULTS: The majority of mothers were aware that overweight can affect infants, however most considered that excess weight becomes an issue only after 2 years of age and believed that parents should be more worried about their child being underweight than overweight. Mothers were also open to participating in a parenting program, were mostly interested in program content about promoting babies' health but not feeding, and preferred advertisements for positive parenting and promoting babies' health rather than preventing infant obesity.

CONCLUSIONS FOR PRACTICE: These findings can help to develop effective strategies to enhance parental engagement and optimize parenting interventions in infant obesity prevention research.