JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

An avid eating behaviour profile is characterised by a greater interest in food and a tendency to over-eat in response to negative emotions. Parents use specific strategies to manage feeding interactions with children with avid eating behaviour. While momentary and contextual factors, such as parental mood, have been found to influence parental feeding practices, there is a lack of research examining parents’ daily experiences of feeding children with avid eating behaviour. Examining this is important because parental feeding practices are key levers in tailored interventions to support children’s healthy eating behaviour.

Objective:

To describe the ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods and procedures used in the APPETItE project (Appetite in Preschoolers: Producing Evidence for Tailoring Interventions Effectively), which aims to examine how variation in parental mood, feeding goals, and the context of eating occasions affect the parental feeding practices used to manage feeding interactions with children with an avid eating behaviour profile.

Methods:

Participants are primary caregivers from the APPETItE cohort, who have a preschool-age child with an avid eating behaviour profile. Caregivers complete a 10-day EMA period using signal- and event-contingent surveys to examine: (i) mood and stress; (ii) parental feeding goals; and (iii) contextual factors as predictors of parental feeding practices.

Results:

Recruitment and data collection began in October 2023 and is ongoing.

Conclusions:

The findings from this study will provide an understanding of caregivers’ daily experiences of feeding preschool children with avid eating behaviour, who are at greater risk for the development of obesity. Understanding the predictors of feeding practices at the moment they occur will inform the development of resources to support caregivers with managing children’s avid eating behaviour. Clinical Trial: N/A