Communication With Family Child Care Providers and Feeding Preschool-Aged Children: Parental Perspectives

Abstract

Objective: To describe parent communication about child nutrition-related topics with family child care providers (FCCPs).

Design: Five focus groups conducted from December, 2016 to July, 2017.

Participants: Parents (n = 25) of 2- to 5-year-old children attending family child care homes in Rhode Island.

Phenomenon of interest: How and what parents communicate about with FCCPs related to feeding young children.

Analysis: Recordings were transcribed verbatim. Two independent coders employed content analysis to analyze transcripts. Reflections, emerging themes, and final themes were discussed.

Results: Participants were recruited through FCCPs and were mostly Hispanic and female. Parents mainly communicated with FCCPs in person. Communication with FCCPs related to how and what children were fed did not occur frequently, and parents usually inquired about how much children ate.

Conclusions and implications: Parents did not engage in frequent child nutrition-related communication with their FCCP. However, parents trusted FCCPs to provide healthy and sufficient food to children. More research is needed to identify effective strategies that facilitate child nutrition communication between parents and FCCPs.

Keywords: child care; communication; feeding behavior; focus groups; parents.