25 July 2019

Early Life Nutrition: Parents not confident about their children’s health

FMCG Gurus Q2 research of 20,000 parents of children aged 0-14 years old shows that they are not overly confident about their offspring’s health. This applies to both their physical and cognitive health.

Indeed, the research shows that the three biggest concerns that parents have when it comes to children’s health are obesity (40%). This is something that can be linked to changing eating and drinking habits, greater levels of inactivity and the difficulty of monitoring what kids eat and drink. In comparison, parents are most likely to be satisfied that their child is not underweight (67%). After obesity, the two biggest concerns that parents have are behaviour in general (35%) and cognitive development (34%). This shows that mental wellbeing, progression, and happiness are also key concerns for parents.

When it comes to their children leading a healthier lifestyle, parents feel that they face several challenges. Research shows that the three biggest challenges are hidden sugar in food and drink (51%), children thinking healthy food isn’t tasty (45%) and the difficulty of monitoring what children eat and drink outside of the home (41%). This shows that parents want greater transparency when it comes to nutritional labeling and healthy food and drink products to be positioned in a fun and exciting way so that they are not seen as bland and boring by children.