The effect of nutritional behavior training of mothers on eating habits of toddlers in Gonbabd kindergardens in 2019

Abstract

Introduction Children with the age of 12 to 36 months are in a critical period in terms of nutritional behavior development. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of nutritional behaviour training of mothers on the eating habits of their toddler children in Gonbad kindergartens. Material and Methods This experimental study with pre-test and post-test with two intervention and control groups was performed on 90 mothers of 12 to 36month-old kindergartens in Gonbad city in Golestan province using simple random sampling method. In the intervention group, nutritional behavior training was conducted during eight sessions 60minute. The research tool was demographic questionnaire and feeding problem questionnaire. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 25 by running the chi-square test, fisher test, independent t-test, and covariance analysis at the sig- nificant level of 0.05. Results The mean of eating habits before intervention was 15.93±7.35 in intervention group and 17.76±8.20 in control group. The mean of eating habits after interven- tion was 8.42±4.64 in the intervention group and 14.71±7.37 in the control group .Comparing the eating habits of children before the intervention showed no sig- nificant difference between the two groups (P=0.32). However, comparison of eating habits after the interven- tion showed a significant difference between the two groups (P<0.001). Conclusion As mothers become more aware of the toddler's nutri- tional behaviors, their behaviors in regard to the toddlers’ nutrition improved during feeding time. Also, conflicts between mothers and toddlers reduced during this period. Thus, we can reduce toddlers’ nutritional problems by ed- ucating their mothers.

Keywords

• nutritional behaviour
• eating habits