Counseling Immigrant Parents about Food and Feeding Practices: Public Health Nurses' Experiences

Abstract

Counseling immigrant parents on food and feeding at CHCs is often challenging for PHNs. The study findings could be used in the development of guidelines to assist PHNs in delivering culturally competent counseling about food and feeding practices.

Counselling parents on young children's healthy diet: A modified scoping review

“…In order to customise advice about food and feeding to the family situation, factors related to the parents are key components and thus to be taken into account. Nevertheless, findings from a previous study reveal that health personnel in a preventive healthcare setting disclose that they rarely ask about aspects such as food preferences of the family or the family situation in attempting to adjust their counselling about food and feeding practices (Holmberg Fagerlund, Pettersen, Terragni, & Glavin, ). By omitting these significant details in a healthcare setting, one might cause the parents to turn to advice from friends or relatives or even to perceive social pressure about when they should start giving solid foods to their infant.…”

Parental experience of counselling about food and feeding practices at the child health centre: A qualitative study

“…Reducing inequalities in health status is a key aim of public health nursing (Edgecombe & World Health Organization, ). A typical task in public health nursing is counselling parents about food and feeding issues related to their infants (Redsell et al, ) and children below school age (Hemingway, Aarts, Koskinen, Campbell, & Chasse, ; Holmberg Fagerlund, Pettersen, Terragni, & Glavin, ; Ilmonen, Isolauri, & Laitinen, ). The child health centre (CHC) is frequently the context for public health nurses’ (PHNs’) counselling parents with under school‐aged children (Bramhagen, Axelsson, & Hallström, ; Holmberg Fagerlund et al, ; Ilmonen et al, ).…”

“…Findings of a recent study focusing on the experiences of PHNs indicated that PHNs possessed limited strategies and tools for addressing nutritional issues at the CHC, particularly adapted to clients’ cultural diversity (Holmberg Fagerlund et al, ). This prompted a need for additional training on client counselling strategies as well as culturally appropriate information materials and visual aids to assist PHNs in delivering equitable services at the CHCs (Holmberg Fagerlund et al, ). This was therefore seen as a rationale for preparing a communication tool about diet for universal use in PHN consultations at the CHC.…”

“…This tool was intended to assist PHNs in their assessment and in tasks individualising counselling about infant and child feeding practices for families in three regular CHC consultations, when the child was aged 10, 12 and 15–18 months. These consultations were chosen based on previous study findings, indicating that, according to PHNs, counselling about food and feeding practices typically becomes challenging when the child reaches weaning age and especially when the child begins to eat the same food as the rest of the family (Holmberg Fagerlund et al, ).…”

“…Counselling inspired by motivational interviewing, by expressed empathy regarding the parents’ needs, strengthening their confidence and thus avoiding any persuading (Wong, ), was incorporated in the communication tool about diet (Miller & Rollnick, ). The purpose of this was to encourage appropriate adjustment of PHN counselling to the preferences and needs of the particular family (Holmberg Fagerlund et al, ). The motivational interviewing approach to counselling implies creating opportunities for active collaboration between the PHN as counsellor and the collaborating parent about their joint project, that is, to optimise the diet of the child.…”