Maternal actions and problems in managing the child's weight and their association with the maternal percepcion of the weight and age of her child

Abstract

Introduction: To properly perceive the child's weight may influence the mother to start up changes to prevent and manage overweight problems. Objectives: 1) To assess whether the actions and problems to manage the child's weight are different according to the nutritional status and the perception on the child's weight; and 2) to assess whether the actions and problems are different according to the child's age. Methods: 2840 mothers and sons/daughters (age 2-17 years) from North-eastern Mexico participated. The mothers answered: a) I feel my child is overweighted? b) What have you done to manage your son's / daughter's weight? and c) What are the problems? The children's weight and height were measured. Contingency tables were constructed and the Chi squared test was applied. Results: When the mothers of children with overweight/ obesity properly perceive this situation, dietrelated actions are taken (62.0% and 65.6%) (χ² = 307.02, gl = 9 p <.001) and the problems are recognized (26.2% and 43.7%) (χ ² = 131.46, gl = 6,p <.001). The mothers of children in 1^st to 6^th grade are more prone to take actions (51.2%) (χ ² = 44.78, gl = 9,p < .001) and recognize more problems (21.8%) (χ ² = 61.74, gl = 6, p < .001) Conclusions: When the problems related with the child's weigh are recognized, actions are undertaken and the problems are recognized. Interventions are recommended for properly recognizing overweight/obesity and providing information on diet-related actions.