Abstract: Objective: To investigate the health beliefs and feeding behaviors in primary caregivers of infants and young children aged 6-24 months, to analyze the main related factors of them, and to provide scientific references for feeding behavior interventions. Methods: A survey was conducted among 570 primary caregivers of infants and young children aged 6-24 months with a self-designed caregivers' feeding related health beliefs scale and a feeding behavior scale. Results: The total score of caregivers' health beliefs was 74.62±6.45. The dimension with the highest score was "perceived feeding benefits" (4.30±0.57), while the dimension with the lowest score was "perceived feeding barriers" (2.85±0.70). For the behavior promoting factors, "peer parenting communication" got the highest score (4.58±0.91), and "to hire baby care professionals" got the lowest score (3.02±0.56). The median of total feeding index failed to meet the eligible standards. The total score and score of each dimension of health beliefs were strongly correlated with the feeding behaviors. Conclusion: The feeding behaviors of caregivers for infants and young children aged 6-24 months need to be improved. Promoting the feeding health beliefs of caregivers may be benefit to strength the right feeding behaviors and to improve the quality of feeding for infants and young children.

Key words: feeding related health beliefs; feeding behaviors; caregivers; infants and young children