15 16 To examine caretakers’ perceptions of young children’s new product body weights from a broader familial perspective, we designed this study to include family sets of parents and grandparents actively involved in taking care of preschool age children. While investigating communication about food and physical activity among parents and grandparents of preschoolers

was the main aim of the study, the participants’ perceptions of children’s body weights were essential to the study. All participants answered several questions about this topic, resulting in rich and unique material. Given this, we found that this topic merited dedicated discussion, apart from the larger study. As childhood obesity remains high among families with low socioeconomic status,17–19 and as it is more difficult to recruit and retain these families in intervention programmes20 21 we chose to target a low-income population. Methods Families of children

aged 3–5 years from the Pacific Northwest (Eugene and Springfield metropolitan area, Oregon) were recruited in February—May 2011 through advertisements about the study, published in a local newspaper and the volunteers’ and job seekers’ sections of Craigslist (the most widely used classified advertisement website in the USA). The active involvement of grandparents in family life (defined as spending time with the grandchild at least twice a month) was the primary criterion for inclusion in the study. Consequently, only families in which at least one parent and one grandparent were willing to be interviewed were included in the study. The other

inclusion criteria specified that the child’s age must be between 3 and 5 years, and that the child should have no underlying medical condition or disability which would affect his/her weight. All families who contacted the study coordinator and were found to fulfil the inclusion criteria were recruited Batimastat to the study. When the participants first met with the researchers, and before the interviews took place, the researchers verbally explained the informed consent forms to each participant, and answered any questions participants had. If the parents/grandparents agreed to participate, they were asked to read and sign the written project description and project consent forms. The families received a copy of the written study description and informed consent forms. Parents and grandparents were interviewed separately at the Oregon Social Learning Center. Free child care was provided on site, and the children were not present during the interviews. Each interviewed participant received compensation of $50 for participating in the study.