Child-feeding strategies are associated with maternal concern about children becoming overweight, but not children's weight status.

Background: Research suggests that parents use specific child-feeding strategies to influence their child's weight based on perceptions and concerns about their child's overweight risk, but limited data are available on ethnically diverse low-income populations.

Objective: This cross-sectional study examined associations between mothers' perception and concern about children's weight, child-feeding strategies, and child overweight in an ethnically diverse population.

Subjects: Mothers of preschool children (n=967) who participated in a federally funded nutrition program were asked how they fed their child, how they perceived child's weight, and whether or not they were concerned about their child becoming overweight.