Eating Behaviors, Appetite, and Childhood Obesity in Early Childhood: A Qualitative Study of Mothers’ Perceptions and Prevention Approaches

OBJECTIVE: In early childhood, packaged food consumption, screen-based sedentary behavior, and inconsistent parental feeding practices increase the risk of obesity. Mothers play a central role in shaping children's feeding environments. This study explored mothers' perceptions of eating and appetite behaviors in children aged 36 years, their feeding management strategies, and their evaluations of obesity risk within a cultural context. METHODS: A phenomenologically oriented qualitative design within an interpretiveconstructivist paradigm was employed. Fifteen mothers of children aged 36 years attending a university hospital pediatric outpatient clinic in Türkiye were recruited through purposive sampling. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis in accordance with COREQ guidelines. RESULTS: Four main themes and thirteen subthemes emerged: (1) obesity-triggering eating behavior and appetite alongside an unhealthy lifestyle, (2) biopsychosocial effects of obesity on the child, (3) parenting role and difficulties in appetite control, and (4) strategies for obesity prevention and appetite management. Mothers identified processed food consumption, screen-based eating, and inactivity as key risk factors. Difficulties in boundary-setting, emotional feeding, and parental guilt were also prominent. CONCLUSION: Childhood obesity is a multifaceted condition shaped by children's appetite traits, parental practices, and environmental factors. Findings suggest that effective prevention requires not only individual-level but also family- and environment-level interventions. Pediatric nurses should integrate family-centered, culturally sensitive approaches into early childhood obesity prevention by addressing parental feeding practices, emotional burden, and limit-setting difficulties alongside children's dietary behaviors, with structured interventions targeting appetite education, parental role modeling, and screen time reduction during well-child visits.