Mam knows best? Exploring intergenerational feeding practices and decision making with mothers and grandmothers in urban south Wales (original) (raw)
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Maternal & Child Nutrition, 2011
Improving the nutritional status of infants and young children in developing countries depends to a significant extent on adoption of optimal nutrition-related practices within the context of the household. Most policies, research and programmes on child nutrition in non-Western societies focus narrowly on the mother-child dyad and fail to consider the wider household and community environments in which other actors, hierarchical patterns of authority and informal communication networks operate and influence such practices. In particular, the role and influence of senior women, or grandmothers, has received limited attention. Research dealing with child nutrition from numerous socio-cultural settings in Africa, Asia and Latin America reveals three common patterns related to the social dynamics and decision-making within households and communities. First, grandmothers play a central role as advisers to younger women and as caregivers of both women and children on nutrition and health issues. Second, grandmother social networks exercise collective influence on maternal and child nutrition-related practices, specifically regarding pregnancy, feeding and care of infants, young children and sick children. Third, men play a relatively limited role in day-today child nutrition within family systems. The research reviewed supports the need to re-conceptualize the parameters considered in nutritional policies and programmes by expanding the focus beyond the mother-child dyad to include grandmothers given their role as culturally designated advisers and caregivers.
Intergenerational Transmission of Child Feeding Practices
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021
This study assessed the relationships between parents’ retrospective recollections of their mothers’ child feeding practices (CFP), current disordered eating (DE) and current CFP (how they now feed their children). 174 Israeli parents (136 mothers, 38 fathers; 40.1 ± 6.9 years of age) of children between the ages of 2 and 18, living at home, completed questionnaires online assessing demographics, retrospective recollections of the CFP that their mothers used when they were children, current CFP and current DE. Specific aspects of retrospectively recalled maternal CFP were significantly associated with the same aspects of current CFP. Current DE mediated the association between retrospectively recalled maternal CFP and current CFP and moderated the association between current concern about child’s weight and pressure for child to eat. Results highlight that the way adults pass on their feeding practices to their children is strongly influenced by their childhood recollections of thei...
Pregnancy and motherhood are increasingly subjected to surveillance. Research has highlighted that public breastfeeding is difficult to navigate within existing constructs of acceptable femininity, but at the same time, mothers who formula feed are often located within discourses of the failed maternal subject. This article draws on intergenerational research with six mother/grandmother pairs from marginalised urban Welsh locales, which involved elicitation interviews around the everyday artefacts that participants presented to symbolise their experiences of motherhood and infant care. We examine the negotiation of acceptable motherhood in relation to the intrusive policing of lifestyle choices, consumption and infant feeding from family, friends and strangers. The article argues that the moral maze of surveyed motherhood renders infant feeding a challenging, and challenged, space for women. key words breastfeeding • infant formula • infant feeding • morality • motherhood • surveillance • stigma • visual methods • participatory research • qualitative research
Social Science & …, 2008
This paper has two purposes: first of all, we examine grandmothers' role and views of child feeding practices in northern Malawi, and their influence on younger women's practices. Secondly, we consider the implications of these findings for health promotion activities and models of health education. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews, focus groups and a participatory workshop. Findings demonstrate that, to address child feeding practices which have an effect on nutrition, attention must be paid to the broader context that influences child nutrition, including extended family relations. Paternal grandmothers have a powerful and multifaceted role within the extended family in northern Malawi, both in terms of childcare and in other arenas such as agricultural practices and marital relations. Grandmothers often differ in their ideas about early child feeding from conventional Western medicine. Some practices have existed in the area at least since colonial times, and have strong cultural significance. Despite the important integrated role, older women have within households and communities in this part of Malawi, hospital personnel often have disparaging and paternalistic attitudes towards 'grannies' and their knowledge. Health education rarely involves grandmothers, and even if they are involved, their perspectives are not taken into consideration. Hospital staff often reject grandmother knowledge as part of a broader modernization paradigm which views 'traditional knowledge' as backward. Grandmothers view current child health conditions within a broader context of changing livelihood conditions and a high prevalence of HIV/ AIDS. The paper concludes by discussing the challenges of involving grandmothers in health education, and the difficulties of incorporating local knowledge into a medical system that largely rejects it.
Social class, anxieties and mothers' foodwork
Sociology of Health & Illness, 2015
In the context of concerns about childhood obesity, mothers are placed at the forefront of responsibility for shaping the eating behaviour and consequently the health of their young children. This is evident in a multitude of diverse sites such as government reports, health promotion materials, reality TV shows and the advice of childcare nurses and preschools. These sites produce a range of resources available to mothers to draw on to constitute themselves as mothers in terms of caring for their children's health. Drawing on a qualitative study of mothers recruited through three Australian preschool centres, this article examines how the working-class and middle-class mothers of preschool-aged children engage with knowledge about motherhood, children and health and how those engagements impact on their mothering, their foodwork and their children. We argue that, unlike the working-class mothers pathologised in some literature on obesity, these working-class mothers demonstrated a no-nonsense (but still responsibilised) approach to feeding their children. The middle-class mothers, on the other hand, were more likely to engage in practices of self-surveillance and to demonstrate considerable anxieties about the appropriateness of their practices for their children's current and future health.
Public Health Nutrition, 2019
ObjectiveThe current mixed-methods study explored qualitative accounts of prior childhood experiences and current contextual factors around family meals across three quantitatively informed categories of family meal frequency patterns from adolescence to parenthood: (i) ‘maintainers’ of family meals across generations; (ii) ‘starters’ of family meals in the next generation; and (iii) ‘inconsistent’ family meal patterns across generations.DesignQuantitative survey data collected as part of the first (1998–1999) and fourth (2015–2016) waves of the longitudinal Project EAT (Eating and Activity in Adolescents and Young Adults) study and qualitative interviews conducted with a subset (n 40) of Project EAT parent participants in 2016–2017.SettingSurveys were completed in school (Wave 1) and online (Wave 4); qualitative interviews were completed in-person or over the telephone.ParticipantsParents of children of pre-school age (n 40) who had also completed Project EAT surveys at Wave 1 and ...
2014
Maternal perceptions and practices regarding child feeding have been extensively studied in the context of childhood overweight and obesity. To date, there is scant evidence on the role of fathers in child feeding. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify whether characteristics of fathers and their concerns about their children's risk of overweight were associated with child feeding perceptions and practices. Questionnaires were used to collect data from 436 Australian fathers (mean age = 37 years, SD = 6) of a child (53% boys) aged between 2 and 5 years (M = 3.5 years, SD = 0.9). These data included a range of demographic variables and selected subscales from the Child Feeding Questionnaire on concern about child weight, perceived responsibility for child feeding and controlling practices (pressure to eat and restriction). Multivariable linear regression was used to examine associations between demographic variables and fathers' feeding perceptions and practices. Results indicated that fathers' who were more concerned about their child becoming overweight reported higher perceived responsibility for child feeding and were more controlling of what and how much their child eats. Greater time commitment to paid work, possessing a health care card (indicative of socioeconomic disadvantage) and younger child age were associated with fathers' perceiving less responsibility for feeding. Factors such as paternal BMI and education level, as well as child gender were not associated with feeding perceptions or practices. This study contributes to the extant literature on fathers' role in child feeding, revealing several implications for research and interventions in the child feeding field.
Revisiting a neglected construct: parenting styles in a child-feeding context
Appetite, 2005
The extent to which general parenting represents feeding styles in ethnically diverse populations is not well documented. Existing measures of child feeding have focused almost exclusively on specific behaviors of European-American parents. A valid and reliable instrument was developed to identify feeding styles in parents of low-income minority preschoolers. Two hundred thirty-one parents (130 Hispanic; 101 African-American) completed questionnaires on feeding practices and parenting styles. Based on self-reported feeding behavior, parents were assigned to four feeding styles (authoritarian, nZ84; authoritative, nZ34; indulgent, nZ80; and uninvolved, nZ33). Convergent validity was evaluated by relating feeding styles to independent measures of general parenting and authoritarian feeding practices. Authoritarian feeding styles were associated with higher levels of general parental control and authoritarian feeding practices. Alternatively, authoritative feeding styles were associated with higher levels of general parental responsiveness. Among the two permissive feeding styles, Hispanic parents were more likely to be indulgent, whereas African-American parents were more likely to be uninvolved. Further, differences were found among the feeding styles on an independent measure of child's body mass index. q
Public Health Nutrition
Objective:Globally, grandparents are the main informal childcare providers with one-quarter of children aged ≤5 years regularly cared for by grandparents in Australia, the UK and USA. Research is conflicting; many studies claim grandparents provide excessive amounts of discretionary foods (e.g. high in fat/sugar/sodium) while others suggest grandparents can positively influence children’s diet behaviours. The present study aimed to explore the meaning and role of food treats among grandparents who provide regular informal care of young grandchildren.Design:Qualitative methodology utilising a grounded theory approach. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and focus groups, then thematically analysed.Setting:Participants were recruited through libraries, churches and playgroups in South Australia.Participants:Grandparents (n 12) caring for grandchild/ren aged 1–5 years for 10 h/week or more.Results:Three themes emerged: (i) the functional role of treats (e.g. to reward ...