Table 6.

Strengths, challenges and illustrative quotes: parental perspectives on specific dietary weight‐management strategies

Low‐fat
Strengths:	Easy substitutions
Challenges:	Tendency to overeat low‐fat items Expense of lower‐fat options Identifying high‐fat/low‐fat foods time consuming and confusing
Father: ‘It's the money; that stuff's high.’ Mother: ‘I don't understand the fat, fat grams, and calories. I will stand in the aisle for an hour reading the back of things.’
Low‐carbohydrate
Strengths:	Allows foods kids like, and limits foods that are overconsumed No need to count calories
Challenges:	Difficult to identify carbohydrate‐rich foods Difficult to cut out starches/.carbohydrates – low cost, convenience, taste Misconstrued as allowing substitution of whole grains
Mother: ‘For my child, the low carb kind of tells them what they can and can't eat. There's not a lot of you can't eat this and you can't eat that.’ Mother: ‘What do you mean by carbohydrate? Starchy food? Bread has a lot of starch … what else?’
Mediterranean
Strengths:	Olive oil is beneficial Good, if like seafood
Challenges:	Inconsistent with typical ‘kid cuisine’ Too complicated Misconstrued as seafood diet
Mother: ‘The only problem is the fish – I don't like fish sticks.’ Father: ‘If the adults don't understand it, then for sure kids not gonna understand it – it's too confusing.’
Traffic light
Strengths:	Colour‐coding child‐friendly Promotes child understanding
Challenges:	Difficult to identify red, yellow, green foods Children not used to eating green foods Red foods would be eaten more, despite restriction
Mother: ‘It's more of a game than a diet, that's what I like about it.’ Mother: ‘It would be too complicated, unless it came pre‐packaged and pre‐ready to go.’

This table is provided to highlight parental perspectives regarding strengths and challenges for each of the dietary interventions discussed, with illustrative quotes.