Table 5.

Themes, subthemes, a selection of illustrative verbatim quotes and narrative data reflecting the identified facilitators to discussing child weight with parents

Themes	Subthemes	Verbatim quotes
Intra/interpersonal factors
Staff factors	Knowledge and perceived confidence	‘I feel quite confident in speaking to them [parents]…. That may be because of my background’ (School nurse, 12; Turner et al., 2016)
Parental factors	Parents seeking help	‘(When the parents seek help themselves) they embrace what you talk about, changing the diet and trying to assimilate the tips and advice that I have given ……..the easiest ones are the parents that say ‘help me’. They're definitely the easiest’ (Child health centre nurse; Regber et al., 2013)
Professional–parent interaction	Opportunity for health promotion	‘Sometimes opportunities come, like the child is obese, and they come with some aches and pains in joints and… asthma [and ask] how do we prevent that? …. Say ‘you do this’ and she [the mother] is more likely to do it’ (GP Focus group 2; King et al. 2007)
	Language	‘I will never use the word overweight or obese’ (WIC health professional; Chamberlin et al., 2002)
	Good relationship	‘I think the biggest thing is to keep a good relationship with the families, so that you can introduce little things and they're never afraid to come back because you're going to yell at them’ (Paediatrician; Gilbert & Fleming, 2006)
	Assessment tools	‘Well, I think really the growth chart helps because you can show them. It's not just talking, you can show them where they should be and where they are’. (WIC health professional; Chamberlin et al., 2002)
	Regular monitoring and follow‐up	Ongoing monitoring and evaluation were identified as catalysis's for interactions between clinicians and parents … Many clinicians mentioned that encouraging families to monitor their behaviours and share these data with them gave them some objective evidence upon which to help with goal setting and recommendations (Farnesi et al., 2012 p. 14)
	Family‐centred goals	Counselling sessions needed to involve changing behaviour in small increments with short‐term goals that were established in conjunction with the client. The health care professionals also felt that the process of setting nutritional goals should be respectful of the client's social circumstances. Failing to focus on short‐term, achievable, client centred goals was likely to make the client feel overwhelmed and uninterested (Chamberlin et al. p. 666)