Parenting to prevent body dissatisfaction and unhealthy eating patterns in preschool children: A Delphi consensus study

• Prevention guidelines for parents of preschoolers were developed.
• Experts disagreed on whether parents should weigh children or discourage weighing.
• Experts agreed on how parents can teach children about healthy eating.
• The developed guidelines are a resource for parents and prevention researchers.

Interventions to prevent body dissatisfaction and unhealthy eating patterns are needed in early childhood. Identifying effective parenting strategies would be useful for parents and prevention researchers. To develop expert consensus, an online Delphi study was conducted with experts (N = 28, Mage = 44.34) who rated statements describing potential parenting strategies gleaned from a systematic literature search. If 90–100% rated a statement as either Essential or Important, it was endorsed as a guideline. From a total of 335 statements 153 were endorsed. Despite some areas of disagreement, including whether parents should weigh their child or discourage weighing, experts were able to reach consensus on a wide range of issues, such as how to discuss healthy eating with children. The developed guidelines provide a novel and required resource for parents, and a framework for researchers developing interventions to prevent the onset of body dissatisfaction and unhealthy eating patterns in early childhood.