Early childhood nutrition concerns, resources and services for Aboriginal families in Victoria

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the child nutrition concerns of Aboriginal families with young children attending Aboriginal health and early childhood services in Victoria; training needs of early childhood practitioners; and sources of nutrition and child health information and advice for Aboriginal families with young children. Method:Qualitative needs assessment involving consultation with Aboriginal parents of young children aged 0-8 years attending Aboriginal health and early childhood services, and early childhood practitioners from Aboriginal health and early childhood services in urban and regional Victoria. Focus groups were conducted with 35 Aboriginal parents and interviews conducted with 45 health and early childhood practitioners. Thematic analysis was used to generate and then refine distinct, internally consistent common themes from the data. Results:The most frequent issues identified were low levels of breastfeeding, inappropriate introduction of solids, reliance on bottles, sweet drinks, and energy-dense foods, poor oral health and overweight. Concerns about staff training and capacity, and access to maternal and child health services were also common. Conclusion and implication:This study identifies major gaps in service delivery for Aboriginal families with young children and points to the need for a coordinated, culturally responsive systems approach to providing support for breastfeeding and child nutrition advice and support for Aboriginal families, including capacity building for staff, and supportive systems and policy.

Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among Indigenous Australian children aged 0–3 years and association with sociodemographic, life circumstances and health factors

“…This finding might indicate the benefits of further building capacity in child nutrition among AHW (as well as other health providers). Previous research has identified a need to build nutrition expertise among AHW (5,29) , including providing AHW clear and contextually relevant information to disseminate to families (29,67) and building AHW confidence in delivering correct nutritional messages (5) . Training gaps have also been identified for other health providers working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infant and child health (5,6,63) .…”

“…Colonisation disconnected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from their family, land, culture and traditional knowledge, and has contributed to ongoing trauma (30,31) . Colonial practices such as relocating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to missions, the provision of food rations and separating mothers from their children interrupted intergenerational knowledge transfer, contributing to the loss of knowledge about infant feeding practices (5)(6)(7)29,32,33) . Further, the colonisation of Australia led to persisting social, economic, health and structural inequities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (30,34) .…”

“…Further, the colonisation of Australia led to persisting social, economic, health and structural inequities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (30,34) . As a result, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families experience life circumstances, stressors or health conditions that may preclude adherence to child dietary recommendations (5,31) .…”

Sectoral system capacity development in health promotion: evaluation of an Aboriginal nutrition program

“…also established research partnerships, strengthening the evidence base for practice with four university collaborations resulting in research publications. 17,[20][21][22][23] Supervised dietetic student placements further built dietitian-Aboriginal community linkages, for example, the implementation of the Aboriginal Community Food Programs Success Stories project. 24 Community feedback further informed the roll-out of food programs within the SecondBite partnership.…”

“…workshops) and in MEND child overweight and obesity training sessions with Aboriginal health professionals and community workers. They strengthened the practice evidence base through community consultation, systematic evaluation, ongoing cycles of action-reflection and community dissemination as well as the disciplinary evidence base through research, publication 5,17,[20][21][22][23][24][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] and presentations. Importantly, they also embedded the VANPAS across the emergent system of the Victorian Aboriginal nutrition sector.…”