LAUSR

Fathers are often marginalized in infant nutrition education, which limits fathers' opportunities to develop responsive, nutritious infant feeding practices. To effectively engage fathers in infant nutrition education, research is needed to describe fathers’ unique information needs and preferences, which was the objective of the current study. First-time parents of infants ≤24 months old completed a cross-sectional online survey about their experience obtaining information about infant feeding in the last 30 days, including: Search frequency, information basis preferences, search topics, sources of information, and information use. Chi-square analyses were conducted to explore gender differences. Fathers were the minority of participants (n = 47, 11%). Fathers primarily identified as white (66%) or Black (21%) and were diverse in education and income. Most fathers (87%) sought information about infant feeding ≥ once per week. Fathers most frequently ranked supported by scientific information as the most important basis of infant feeding information (32%). In the last 30 days, fathers most commonly sought information about bottle feeding (51%), breastfeeding (40%), recipe ideas (40%), and infant nutritional needs (40%). Fathers’ top most recent search topics were breastfeeding (15%), food allergies (11%) and introducing solid foods (11%). In their most recent search, fathers most commonly sought information from relatives (62%), search engines (51%), websites (43%), co-parents (38%), and pediatricians (36%). Compared to mothers, fathers were more likely to have sought information about bottle feeding in the last 30 days (51% vs. 23%, P < .001) and most recently. Fathers’ most recent search was less likely about recipe ideas (6% vs. 20%, P = .021). Fathers were more likely to seek information from relatives (62% vs. 43%, P = .013) and co-parents (38% vs. 20%, P = .005). Fathers were more likely to feel empowered by the information they obtained (38% vs. 22%, P = .013), and to use that information (98% vs. 85%, P = .014), specifically to make a plan (79% vs. 64%, P = .042), or use a new feeding approach (57% vs. 43%, P = .032). Fathers reported unique information needs and preferences that could be incorporated into infant nutrition education programming. NSF GRPF; USDA NIFA; University dissertation endowment.