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Urban parents' perceptions of healthy infant growth

Stephanie A Sullivan1, Kelly R Leite, Michele L Shaffer

  • 1Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA.

Clinical Pediatrics
|March 2, 2011
PubMed

Insights

Many urban parents misunderstand infant growth charts, with some preferring "chubby baby" growth patterns linked to higher child weight percentiles and potential future obesity.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatrics
  • Public Health
  • Child Nutrition

Background:

  • Parental perception of healthy infant size is crucial for child development.
  • Understanding of growth charts varies among urban populations, particularly minority groups.
  • Early life growth patterns can influence long-term health outcomes, including obesity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between urban parents' perceptions of healthy infant size and growth and their children's objective weight-for-length percentiles.
  • To assess parental understanding of infant growth charts and percentile meanings.
  • To identify parental preferences for infant growth patterns and their association with actual growth metrics.

Main Methods:

  • Survey of 222 urban parents with infants aged 6 to 27 months (69% minority).
  • Questions assessed parental understanding of growth charts and preferences for infant size and growth curves.
  • Objective weight-for-length percentiles were compared based on parental perceptions.

Main Results:

  • 41% of parents reported never having growth charts explained; 31% lacked confidence in understanding percentiles.
  • 20% of parents preferred their child at or above the 75th percentile, with these children showing higher mean weight-for-length percentiles (P = .05).
  • 37% agreed 'a chubby baby is a healthy baby,' and these children had significantly higher weight-for-length percentiles (P = .02). 58% deemed consistent 10th percentile growth as 'least healthy'.

Conclusions:

  • Infant growth charts are not consistently explained or understood by urban parents.
  • Parental preferences for larger infant size and 'chubby' appearances correlate with higher objective growth percentiles.
  • Misconceptions about healthy infant growth may contribute to risks of childhood obesity.

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