Emotional health screening of mothers, preliminary validation of a 3-item instrument: A research brief.

A number of countries now recommend population-wide depression screening for perinatal women, using validated tools. A stepped-approach to screening - involving universal screening with a brief measure, followed by targeted screening using a longer measure for those women identified as at greater risk - is used in some settings. This brief report describes the test performance characteristics of a 3-item mood screening instrument, developed for use within a digital parenting program.

Improving Outcomes for Regional Families in the Early Years: Increasing Access to Child and Family Health Services for Regional Australia.

Providing child and family health (CFH) services that meet the needs of young children and their families is important for a child's early experiences, development and lifelong health and well-being. In Australia, families living in regional and rural areas have historically had limited access to specialist CFH services. In 2019, five new specialist CFH services were established in regional areas of New South Wales, Australia.

Child sleep problems, maternal sleep and self-efficacy: Sleep's complicated role in maternal depression.

Depression, poor sleep duration and low self-efficacy are common in mothers of children with sleep problems. However, research rarely extends beyond the postpartum period. This study investigated the multifaceted relationship between child sleep and maternal depression in early motherhood.

Bidirectional associations between parental feeding practices, infant appetitive traits and infant BMIz: a longitudinal cohort study.

Background: Little is known about the pathways linking parent feeding practices with appetitive traits and BMIz throughout infancy. This study examined bidirectional associations between parental feeding practices, infant appetitive traits, and infant BMIz.

Methods: Parents (n = 380) of infants aged less than 6 months at baseline reported their feeding practices (using the Feeding Practices and Structure Questionnaire (FPSQ) for infants and toddlers), infant appetitive traits (using the Baby Eating Behaviour Questionnaire) and infant BMIz (parent-reported) at three timepoints (< 6 months, ~ 9 months, ~ 12 months) up to 12 months of age.

Informing Infant Nutrition: Timing of Infant Formula Advice, Infant Formula Choice and Preparation in the First 6 Months of Life.

Objective: To examine the sources and timing of advice formula feeding parents receive and how this and other factors influence the choice of formula product and formula preparation.

Design: Components of a cross-sectional survey.

Setting: A child and family health service in New South Wales, Australia.

Infant Appetitive Phenotypes: A Group-Based Multi-Trajectory Analysis.

Examining appetitive traits with person-centered analytical approaches can advance the understanding of appetitive phenotype trajectories across infancy, their origins, and influences upon them. The objective of the present study was to empirically describe appetitive phenotype trajectories in infancy and examine the associations with infant and parent factors. In this longitudinal cohort study of Australian infants, parents completed three online surveys ~3 months apart, beginning when the infant was <6 months.

"Ask Parents What They Want to Do" - Mothers Seeking Help with Parenting and Their Perspectives on Barriers and Potential Enablers for Help with Smoking Cessation: A Qualitative Study.

Purpose: To describe parents' perceptions of opportunities and barriers to smoking cessation in early parenting and the support needed to achieve this.

Design And Methods: A qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews with mothers, and inductive thematic analysis.

Results: Barriers to cessation intervention included readiness to quit, lack of knowledge, and the shame and stigma of seeking help.

Addressing obesity in the first 1000 days in high risk infants: Systematic review.

Early intervention is critical for addressing the challenge of childhood obesity. Yet many preventive interventions do not target infants most at risk of future overweight or obesity. This systematic review examines interventions delivered before 2 years that aim to ameliorate excess weight gain among infants at high risk of overweight or obesity, due to sociodemographic characteristics, parental weight or health status, infant feeding or health behaviours.

The Feeding Practices and Structure Questionnaire: development and validation of age appropriate versions for infants and toddlers.

Background: In order to measure and understand trajectories of parental feeding practices and their relationship with child eating and weight, it is desirable to perform assessment from infancy and across time, in age-appropriate ways. While many feeding practices questionnaires exist, none is presently available that enables tracking of feeding practices from infancy through childhood. The aim of the study was to develop a version of the Feeding Practices and Structure Questionnaire (FPSQ) for parents with infants and toddlers (< 2 years) to be used in conjunction with the original FPSQ for older children (≥2 years) to measure feeding practices related to non-responsiveness and structure across childhood.

Professional and non-professional sources of formula feeding advice for parents in the first six months.

Breastfeeding is beneficial to both the mother and infant, yet many infants are either partially or fully fed with formula milk. Those parents feeding with formula receive less support from professional sources than those breastfeeding and may rely on more non-professional sources for advice, and this contributes to negative emotional experiences such as guilt. This paper explores the sources of advice for formula feeding, factors associated with using professional or non-professional sources and compares these sources with those used for breastfeeding advice.

Bottle-feeding an infant feeding modality: An integrative literature review.

Bottle-feeding is an infant feeding modality that has been in existence since ancient times, and currently, a significant number of infants are being fed via a bottle with either breastmilk or formula. Although research on bottle-feeding has continued, it exists in fragmented, often small studies that focus on singular aspects of feeding an infant using a bottle, with limited information on the bottle-feeding act. Systems theory was the approach used to define the act of bottle-feeding and identify the parts within this act.

Characteristics and changes in characteristics of women and babies admitted to residential parenting services in New South Wales, Australia in the first year following birth: a population-based data linkage study 2000-2012.

Objective: To examine the characteristics of women and babies admitted to the residential parenting services (RPS) of Tresillian and Karitane in the first year following birth.

Design: A linked population data cohort study was undertaken for the years 2000-2012.

Setting: New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

Infant feeding beliefs and practices of Arabic mothers in Australia.

Background: Culturally sensitive care in the health care system is imperative for optimal outcomes of all patients, especially women and their infants. For Arabic mothers in Australia, there is minimal research exploring their beliefs that could impact on their infant feeding decisions and practices.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the experiences, knowledge and influences around infant feeding in Arabic women in Australia.

Characteristics and service needs of women and babies admitted to residential parenting units in New South Wales: A mixed-methods study.

Aims And Objectives: To examine the characteristics and service needs of women and babies admitted to residential parenting services (RPS) in the first year following birth in New South Wales, Australia.

Background: In Australia, there is a tiered system to support maternal, child and family health, which includes RPS.

Design: Sequential explanatory mixed-methods design.

Infant formula feeding practices associated with rapid weight gain: A systematic review.

Excess or rapid weight gain during the first 2 years of life is associated with an increased risk of later childhood and adult overweight and obesity. When compared with breastfed infants, formula fed infants are more likely to experience excess or rapid weight gain, and this increased risk in formula fed infant populations may be due to a number of different mechanisms. These mechanisms include the nutrient composition of the formula and the way formula is prepared and provided to infants.

Infant formula feeding practices and the role of advice and support: an exploratory qualitative study.

Background: Infant formula feeding practices are an important consideration for obesity prevention. An infant's diet is influential on their later risk of developing overweight or obesity, yet very little is known about infant formula feeding practices. It is plausible that certain modifiable practices may put children at higher risk of developing overweight or obesity, for example how much and how often a baby is fed.

Using professional expertise in partnership with families: A new model of capacity building.

The first five years of parenting are critical to children's development. Parents are known to respond best to interventions with a partnership-based approach, yet child and family health nurses (CFHNs) report some tension between employing their expertise and maintaining a partnership relationship. This article identifies ways in which CFHNs skilfully use their professional expertise, underpinned by helping qualities and interpersonal skills, to assist families build confidence and capacity, and thus buffer against threats to parent and child well-being.

Parents' views on childhood obesity: qualitative analysis of discussion board postings.

Background: Childhood obesity is an increasing concern for parents and health professionals alike. Parents' perception of obesity as a current health issue for their children is important for the everyday parenting and health choices parents make. As parents are frequently going online to seek and exchange information about parenting and child health, asynchronous online discussion forums provide an opportunity to investigate their perceptions and concerns.

Working with complexity: experiences of caring for mothers seeking residential parenting services in New South Wales, Australia.

Aim And Objectives: To investigate staff perception of the changing complexity of mothers and infants admitted to two residential parenting services in New South Wales in the decade from 2005-2015.

Background: For many mothers with a young child, parenting is difficult and stressful. If parenting occurs within the context of anxiety, mental illness or abuse it often becomes a high-risk situation for the primary caregiver.

Mothering at a Distance: what incarcerated mothers value about a parenting programme.

Background: Children with incarcerated mothers experience adverse health, social and emotional circumstances, and are a particularly vulnerable group. Mothers in custody face significant challenges in parenting their children.

Aims: The study aimed to identify participants' views on impact of a parenting support programme for incarcerated mothers in NSW Australia.

Factors that influence mother-child reunification for mothers with a history of substance use: A systematic review of the evidence to inform policy and practice in Australia.

Background: An estimated 60-70% of Australian children in out of home care have a parent with a substance use disorder (SUD). The assessment of a parent's history and needs and the design of supportive interventions, particularly for mothers who are often the primary carers of children, are important considerations in deciding whether or not family reunification is desirable and possible. It is not clear from the research how the needs of families can be best met.

Ready for practice: what child and family health nurses say about education.

Background: Australia has a well-established universal child and family health service predominately staffed by specialist/qualified child and family health nurses. Two common and interrelated concerns are the need for nurses to be ready for practice after completing a nursing education program and the means to ensure ongoing nursing competence.

Objective: To investigate the readiness of CFH nurses to practise after qualification and their continuing engagement with learning.

Re-writing motherhood: researching women's experiences of learning to mother for the first time.

Objective: The aim of this paper was to examine one woman's experience and memory of learning to mother during pregnancy and the first postnatal year.

Design: Narratives of experience and memory were elicited through three in-depth interviews: during the third trimester of pregnancy; at four to six weeks postpartum; and, when the infant was nine months old. Feminist poststructural approaches informed the interview process.

Effectiveness of an individualized multidisciplinary programme for managing unsettled infants.

Objective: To ascertain the effectiveness of an individualized multidisciplinary residential programme for managing young unsettled infants and whether changes in unsettled behaviour were maintained.

Methods: One hundred and nine clients of a Tresillian residential unit with singleton infants aged less than 20 weeks were studied before, during and after intervention. Mothers completed a 24 h infant activity record prior to admission, during the stay and 1 month after discharge.