Does Food Insecurity Influence Child Feeding Practices?

To determine whether food insecurity influences child feeding practices, a structured interview was conducted in a convenience sample of 87 low-income Latino and non-Latino white mothers of preschoolers in California. Current food insecurity, occurring in 34% of the families, was not associated with any child feeding practice. Greater past food insecurity was associated with less monitoring of sweets and snack foods (r = -0.27, P < 0.05). In a multiple regression model including past food insecurity, current household income, and mother's education, only the influence of mother's education remained marginally related to monitoring of sweets and snacks (beta = + 0.08, SE = 0.04, F-value = 4.4, P < 0.01, Adj R-2 = 0.10).