Publications by authors named "Brittany R Markides"
Background: Fussy eating is most often a developmentally typical behaviour, generally presenting during toddlerhood. However, up to half of parents of young children are concerned about fussy eating, and this concern may mediate the use of nonresponsive feeding practises, such as coercive or unstructured feeding and using food to reward eating. Despite the high prevalence of parental concern for fussy eating and the negative impacts nonresponsive feeding practises have on children's health and diets, no previous digital intervention to improve the feeding practises of parents of toddlers concerned about fussy eating has been evaluated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite the well-known benefits of breastfeeding, breastfeeding rates remain suboptimal, particularly for women with lower socioeconomic position. Although popular, breastfeeding apps are often poor quality; their impact on breastfeeding knowledge, attitudes, confidence and intentions is unknown. A mixed method pre-post feasibility study was conducted to: 1) explore the feasibility of the My Baby Now app in providing perinatal breastfeeding support; 2) examine the impact on breastfeeding knowledge, attitudes, confidence and intentions; 3) to examine any differences in acceptability and impact of the app according to maternal education.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFood fussiness is associated with non-responsive parent feeding practices, such as persuasive and instrumental feeding. Although most children described as 'fussy eaters' are likely exhibiting developmentally typical behaviours, up to half of the parents of children 2-5 years old express concerns. Concern for fussy eating may mediate the use of non-responsive feeding practices and so must be addressed in parent feeding interventions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe development of healthy eating habits in childhood is essential to reducing later risk of obesity. However, many parents manage fussy eating in toddlerhood with ineffective feeding practices that limit children's dietary variety and reinforce obesogenic eating behaviours. Understanding parents' feeding concerns and support needs may assist in the development of feeding interventions designed to support parents' uptake of responsive feeding practices.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To compare diet quality of convenience samples of children 2-3 and 4-5 years attending 11 of 75 childcare centers in Hays County, Texas to a nationally representative sample, as part of a needs assessment to inform a childcare center-based intervention.
Methods: Parents completed 24-h recalls of their child's diet in 2014. Usual dietary intake of the regional and age-matched sample from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2011-2014) was estimated using the National Cancer Institute method.
Objective: To assess the efficacy of an educational workshop for child care center staff to improve menus.
Methods: Staff from 18 centers attended a nutrition educational workshop that included an activity that compared center menus to MyPlate standards. Four weeks of menus collected before and after the workshop were imported into SuperTracker; the Food Details report produced menu data clustered by day and center.
Objective: The purpose of this research was to conduct the first stages of a user-centered design of a smartphone app designed to improve health behaviors among participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in Texas.
Methods: Focus groups explored facilitators and barriers to health behaviors, current use of apps, and desired features in a WIC app.
Results: Facilitators to improve health behaviors included access to information, support from healthcare practitioners and family, and implementation of strategies.