Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of professionals working with young children with feeding difficulties

Asmita Mudholkar; Larissa Korostenski; Kristelle Hudry; Alison E. Lane

doi:10.1177/18369391251337790

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Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of professionals working with young children with feeding difficulties

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of professionals working with young children with feeding difficulties

Asmita Mudholkar, Larissa Korostenski, Kristelle Hudry and Alison E. Lane

Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, Vol.50(3), pp.319-333

2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/18369391251337790

Appears in UniSC Diversity and Inclusion Research Collection

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Abstract

feeding difficulties

health professionals

families of young children

UniSC Diversity Area - Life Stages

Early detection of feeding difficulties in childhood is critical for timely support, which may prevent simple feeding problems from becoming pervasive or resistant to intervention. Our study aimed to describe the range of the knowledge, attitudes and practices of established paediatricians, GPs, CHNs and early childcare educators working with young children with feeding difficulties and their caregivers. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted with Australian paediatricians, General Practitioners (GPs), Child Health Nurses (CHNs), and early childhood educators working with children aged two years and below. Findings from our study suggest that healthcare practitioners are relying on anthropometric measurements of growth to identify feeding difficulties, and the most common age at which feeding difficulties are seen in practice is after two years of age. Food insecurity, cultural factors, and access to specialised services are still a challenge, creating a barrier to early identification and intervention.

Details

Title: Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of professionals working with young children with feeding difficulties
Authors: Asmita Mudholkar (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Health - Occupational Therapy
Larissa Korostenski - John Hunter Children's Hospital
Kristelle Hudry - La Trobe University
Alison E. Lane - La Trobe University
Publication details: Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, Vol.50(3), pp.319-333
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.
Date published: 2025
DOI: 10.1177/18369391251337790
ISSN: 1839-5961
Copyright note: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Data Availability: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [AM], upon reasonable request.
Organisation Unit: School of Health - Occupational Therapy
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991127001902621
Output Type: Journal article

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