Communication on complementary feeding: attitudes of parents versus pediatricians in France

International audience** N=17 respondents were excluded because General Practitioners (we considered only PED) *** N=175 parents were excluded from the analysis because their last child had or had had a health problem that could strongly affect his diet • The importance of CF for the healthy growth of the child was well recognized by parents and PED (99%); • 31% of parents consider that the available advice on CF could be contradictory, it was not always consistent and it could even make parents feel guilty in 30% of cases; • Parents began to look for information about CF when the child was about 5 months old; • 93% of PED always gave advice on CF during routine visits with parents when the child was on average 2/3 months old; • According to parents, CF was discussed with PED only in 50% of the cases when the child was less than 6 months old; • 99% of PED considered as their responsibility counselling parents on CF and parents acknowledged them as the most influential source; • Only 28% of PED thought that it was important to give more information on menus and recipes, while 64% of parents searched for this information; Figure 1. Influence of parents' sources of information in the way of feeding their child according to the use of those sources