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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of web‐based nutrition education for parents of preschool children in reducing nutritional risk. The study was conducted in a one‐group pretest–posttest quasi‐experimental design. Parents of 3–5‐year‐old children from 11 preschools in Istanbul participated. They underwent a web‐based nutrition education program. The NutriSTEP assessment tool was used to evaluate the nutritional risk score as a pretest assessment, followed by the training program. Posttests were conducted at 1‐ and 3‐month intervals. Before the intervention, 55.8% of the children exhibited high nutritional risk. After the intervention, this percentage decreased significantly at the 1‐month and 3‐month follow‐ups, with 94.2% and 93.6% of the children classified as low risk, respectively. The analysis also revealed significant associations between children's eating behaviours and factors such as maternal education, family income and family structure. As a result, web‐based nutrition education was effective in reducing nutritional risk among preschool children. The findings underscore the importance of using technology for nutrition interventions, especially in diverse populations. The training program's simple, short and understandable video increased participants' interest in the training and encouraged regular follow‐up. Key messages: Web‐based nutrition education significantly reduced the nutritional risk of preschool children, with high‐risk cases dropping from 55.8% to less than 7% at the 3‐month follow‐up.Technology‐based programmes offer flexible, accessible and effective solutions for parental involvement in child feeding, particularly in urban areas and at times when face‐to‐face access is limited.Parental education and socioeconomic factors, such as maternal education and family income, were strongly associated with child nutritional risk, highlighting the importance of tailoring interventions to different demographic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/aim: Preterm infants often continue to have feeding difficulties after hospital discharge. Parental use of assessment tools and collaboration with health professionals are important for the early diagnosis of postdischarge feeding difficulties. This methodological study examined the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Neonatal Eating Assessment Tool (NeoEAT)-Bottle-feeding in postdischarge preterm infants in Türkiye. Materials and methods: A Turkish version of the NeoEAT-Bottle-feeding was developed and applied to 321 mothers of preterm infants younger than 7 months of corrected age between August 2021 and December 2022. Cronbach's alpha, exploratory factor, confirmatory factor, item-total correlation, test-retest, and known-groups validity analyses were performed. Results: The Turkish NeoEAT-Bottle-feeding has 60 items in five factors explaining 55.785% of the total variance. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that the item factor loading ranged from 0.320 to 0.792. The known-group validity analysis confirmed that preterm infants with diagnosed feeding problems had higher total and subscale scores than those without (p = 0.001). The Cronbach's alpha (a) of the entire scale was 0.96. The item-total correlation coefficients were between 0.31 and 0.77 (p = 0.001). There was excellent agreement between test values and retest values obtained after a 2-week interval (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.930-1.000). Conclusion: The Turkish NeoEAT-Bottle-feeding was shown to be a reliable and valid parent-reported assessment tool for oral feeding skills and difficulties after neonatal intensive care unit discharge in bottle-fed preterm infants younger than 7 months of corrected age. Healthcare professionals can use this assessment tool during the initial evaluation of risk factors contributing to problematic feeding and to determine the effectiveness of planned interventions in preterm infants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pain poses a major health problem for children. There are many non-pharmacological methods that are successful at helping alleviate pain. This study aimed to explore how guided imagery affects pain experiences of children during venipuncture. The sample consisted of 150 children who were 8–12 years old. Our results indicate that pain scores and average heart rate of children in the guided imagery group were statistically lower than the control group's values. The mean oxygen saturation of the guided imagery group during and after venipuncture was higher when compared to the control group. The findings of the present study have suggested that guided imagery is effective at easing pain of children during venipuncture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This study was conducted to compare the effects of breastfeeding (BF) and kangaroo mother care in newborns on the level of pain and physiological changes due to an injection of the hepatitis B vaccine. Materials and Methods: This study was designed as a comparative experimental study. The sample of this study consisted of a total of 70 infants, including 35 in the Kangaroo group and 35 in the BF group, who were followed up in the postnatal ward at Zeynep Kamil Training and Research Hospital between August 2016 and February 2017 and who also met the sample criteria. The pain levels, duration of crying, heart rates (HR) and oxygen saturation (SpO2) of the newborn infants were compared before and after a hepatitis B vaccine injection. Results: It was determined that there was no statistically significant difference between the infants in the BF and kangaroo mother care groups in terms of their pain scores (Z=0.949; p=0.343), SpO2 levels (Z=1.032; p=0.302), HR (Z=0.206; p=0.837) and duration of crying (Z=0.135; p=0.892). Following the vaccination, the HR and pain scores of the infants in the BF gruop increased by less and they had a shorter duration of crying. Conclusion: According to these results, BF infants is effective in reducing the pain induced by invasive interventions as this is easily applicable, takes little time, encourages breast milk and strengthens the mother-infant attachment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The Early Feeding Skills Assessment Tool (EFS) is a valid and reliable tool for evaluating preterm infants' oral feeding skills and readiness during the transition to oral feeding. There is currently no instrument with tested validity and reliability available to evaluate the oral feeding skills and readiness of preterm infants in Turkey. The aim of this study was to fill the need for such an instrument for use in the Turkish population by adapting and validating the EFS for the assessment of Turkish preterm infants during the transition to oral feeding. Material and Methods: This methodological, cross-sectional study included 107 preterm infants. Validity of the EFS-Turkish was tested with linguistic, content, and construct validity analyses, and its reliability was tested using internal consistency and item analyses. Results: A panel of experts confirmed the content validity of the items in the EFS-Turkish (content validity index = 0.97). Cronbach's alpha for the total instrument was 0.95, supporting its internal consistency reliability. Item-total correlations ranged from 0.58 to 0.83 (P < .001). Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the established EFS structure of 19 items and 5 factors. The tool demonstrated good model fit statistics (χ²/df = 2.24; P < .001). Conclusion: The EFS-Turkish is a valid and reliable instrument for use in neonatal intensive care units to evaluate the feeding skills of preterm infants during the transition to oral feeding. The use of the EFS-Turkish is recommended to facilitate the safe and successful development of preterm infants' oral feeding skills and to plan evidence-based initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]