Preschool Childhood Obesity: The Role of Parental Awareness and Nutrition Practices

AIM: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity risk in early childhood, to compare children's BMI with parental BMI and to investigate parents' weight perceptions and feeding practices. METHODS: This descriptive, cross-sectional study of 347 children aged between 36 and 72 months was conducted between 2019 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Child Feeding Questionnaire and Parents' Perception of Healthy Weight were used and the height and weight of children and their parents were measured. BMI classification was based on the World Health Organization (WHO) obesity classification system. RESULTS: The present study showed that there was a statistically significant association between the age of the parents and the BMI of the children (p < 0.05). It was found that higher screen time among children was significantly associated with higher BMI levels (p < 0.05). None of the parents of 31 obese children considered their child to be obese. CONCLUSIONS: The study found that children's BMI shows a significant positive association with screen time and a significant inverse association with parental age (higher BMI linked to younger parental age). In addition, parents have misconceptions about their children's body image. Parents' poorer visual perception of their children may be a barrier to obesity prevention.