RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: In India, childhood malnutrition continues to be a major public health problem, especially in slums. Research mostly focuses on the role of the mother in child feeding, as she spends significantly more time with children. However, the role of fathers, their parenting skills, and child-feeding practices may also affect child development and eating behavior, independent of maternal factors. To our knowledge, there is limited research on the role of the father in child undernutrition, especially in the Indian context. Thus, the aim of this study was to address this knowledge gap and to explore paternal child-feeding patterns, their involvement in feeding, and its association with malnutrition in the slums. METHODS: This community-based, cross-sectional study was conducted in an urban slum in Bangalore. The study included 210 father-child dyads. The Caregiver's Feeding Styles Questionnaire was used to assess paternal involvement in parenting and feeding. Anthropometry measurements were taken using standardized methods. Nutritional status was classified according to the growth standards of the World Health Organization. Logistic regression was used to test the association between paternal parenting style and malnutrition. RESULTS: We recruited 116 boys and 94 girls and their fathers. The mean age of the children was 15.94 mo (SD 4.85). One-fourth of the fathers were illiterate and most of the families belonged to the middle class. Almost half of the fathers fed their children once a day (57.1%) and engaged them during feeding by telling stories (47.1%). The most common paternal feeding style was uninvolved (36%) followed by authoritative (29.5%). Prevalence of undernutrition, stunting, and wasting was 44.3%, 42.8%, and 9.5%, respectively. Religion, type of family, and per capita income were independently associated with uninvolved feeding style. There was no association between paternal child-feeding style malnutrition (P > 0.05) CONCLUSION: The present study explored the dimensions of paternal involvement in child feeding in a slum setting and its effect on child nutrition. A good proportion of fathers were actively involved in child feeding and neither involvement nor paternal feeding styles were associated with the nutritional status of children.
