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Background: Parent feeding practices affect risk of obesity in children. Latino children are at higher risk of obesity than the general population, yet valid measure of feeding practices, one of which is the Infant Feeding Styles Questionnaire (IFSQ), have not been formally validated in Spanish., Objective: To validate the IFSQ among Latino families, we conducted confirmatory factor analysis of pressuring, restrictive, and responsive feeding constructs from the IFSQ., Design/methods: The IFSQ was administered at the 12-month visit in the Greenlight study, a multi-center cluster randomized trial to prevent obesity. Parents were included if they were of Latino origin (n = 303) and completed an English or Spanish language modified IFSQ (without the indulgence construct). Scores from nine sub-constructs of the IFSQ were compared between English and Spanish language versions. We tested reliability with Cronbach's alpha coefficients and performed confirmatory factor analysis to examine factor loadings and goodness of fit characteristics, modifying constructs to achieve best fit., Results: Of 303 parents completing the IFSQ, 84% were born outside the US, and 74% completed the IFSQ in Spanish. Reliability coefficients ranged from 0.28 to 0.61 for the laissez-faire sub-constructs and from 0.58 to 0.83 for the pressuring, restrictive, and responsive sub-constructs. Results for all coefficients were similar between participants responding to an English and Spanish version of the IFSQ. Goodness of fit indices ranged from CFI 0.82-1 and RMSEA 0.00-0.31, and the model performed best in pressuring-soothing (CFI 1.0, RMSEA 0.00) and restrictive-amount (CFI 0.98, RMSEA 0.1) sub-constructs., Conclusions: In a sample of Latino families, pressuring, restrictive, and responsive constructs performed well. The modified IFSQ in both English and Spanish-speaking Latino families may be used to assess parenting behaviors related to early obesity risk in this at-risk population., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In the United States, the prevalence of third trimester anemia among low-income pregnant women is 29% and has not improved since the 1980s. Although low adherence has been linked to the ineffectiveness of iron supplementation programs, data regarding adherence to supplementation in low-income women are currently lacking. Hence this study was conducted to better understand the factors associated with adherence to the use of iron-containing prenatal multivitamin/mineral supplements among low-income pregnant women. Adherence to supplement use was assessed by pill counts among 244 pregnant women of 867 women who were initially randomized to receive 1 of 3 prenatal supplements. All women received care at a public prenatal clinic. Maternal characteristics associated with adherence were identified using predictive modeling. Women took 74% of supplements as prescribed. Adherence was higher among non-Hispanic white women than among non-Hispanic black women (79% vs. 72%, P

The new millennium has ushered in unprecedented opportunities for research and discovery in the nutritional sciences. These have arisen from major advancements in the social and biological sciences, notably genetics, genomic technologies, computational statistics, and behavioral sciences. The most exciting academic challenges and employment opportunities for nutritional sciences graduates interface with other disciplines, and doctoral training programs in the nutritional sciences must respond to the wealth of these emerging opportunities. The American Society for Nutritional Sciences (ASNS) Graduate Nutrition Education Committee suggests that three major challenges face the nutritional sciences: (a) to train doctoral students to be full and active participants in interdisciplinary research and discovery, and (b) to achieve this goal while maintaining nutrition's unique academic identity and (c) fostering a cohesive academic community. The committee proposes that these objectives are best engaged at the level of graduate education and that the future of ASNS will be secured by strengthening graduate nutrition programs. This manuscript reviews educational strategies that address these challenges and advocates that ASNS actively engage graduate doctoral programs in nutritional sciences.

Background: The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and the World Health Organization recommend that infants receive only breast milk or formula for the first 4 to 6 months of life, followed by the introduction of complementary foods. Despite these recommendations, many infants, particularly those with adolescent mothers, receive solid foods (often cereal mixed with formula in a bottle) and liquids other than formula or breast milk in the first few weeks of life. Decisions on early feeding are often guided by grandmothers and influenced by beliefs that infants need complementary food to counteract signals of hunger, reduce crying, and sleep through the night., Objective: This investigation evaluated the efficacy of an intervention to delay the early introduction of complementary feeding among first-time, black, adolescent mothers living in multigenerational households. The intervention focused on reducing the cultural barriers to the acceptance of the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, WIC, and World Health Organization on complementary feeding by highlighting 3 topics: 1) recognition of infants' cues; 2) nonfood strategies for managing infant behavior; and 3) mother-grandmother negotiation strategies. The intervention was delivered through a mentorship model in which a videotape made by an advisory group of black adolescent mothers was incorporated into a home-visiting program and evaluated through a randomized, controlled trial., Methods: One hundred eighty-one first-time, low-income, black mothers <18 years old, living in multigenerational households were recruited from 3 urban hospitals. Infants were born at term, with birth weight appropriate for gestational age and no congenital problems. Shortly after delivery, mothers and grandmothers completed a baseline assessment and mothers were randomized into an intervention or control group. Intervention group mothers received home visitation every other week for 1 year. At 3 months, a subset of 121 adolescent mothers reported on their infant's intake through a food frequency questionnaire. Mothers who fed their infant only breast milk, formula, or water were classified as optimal feeders. Mothers who provided complementary foods other than breast milk, formula, or water were classified as less optimal feeders., Results: Sixty-one percent of the infants received complementary foods before 3 months old. Multivariate hierarchical logistic regression was used to evaluate the determinants of being in the optimal versus less optimal feeders group. After controlling for infant age and family income, mothers of infants in the optimal feeders group were more likely to report accurate messages from WIC regarding the timing of complementary food and nearly 4 times more likely to be in the intervention group. The most common complementary food was cereal mixed with formula in the bottle., Conclusions: The success of this relatively brief intervention demonstrates the importance of using ecological theory and ethnographic research to design interventions that enable participants to alter their behavior in the face of contradictory cultural norms. The intervention focused on interpreting infants' cues, nonfood methods of managing infant behavior, and mother-grandmother negotiations. It was delivered through methods that were familiar and acceptable to adolescent mothers-a mentorship model incorporating home visits and videotape. The skill-oriented aspects of the intervention delivered in a culturally sensitive context may have enabled the young mothers to follow the guidelines that they received from WIC and from their pediatricians. Strategies, such as those used in this intervention, may be effective in promoting other caregiving recommendations, thereby enabling providers to meet the increasing demands from parents for advice regarding children's early growth and development.