Introduction and objective:
Early childhood is a critical time for establishing food preferences and dietary habits. Parents should therefore have a good knowledge of their children’s dietary and nutritional requirements. The aim of this study is to determine whether parents’ knowledge about nutrition has an impact on healthy eating habits and identify patterns of relationship with food in preschool children.

Material and methods:
Parents completed a three-part questionnaire assessing the frequency of their children’s consumption of various types of food, their knowledge of proper nutrition of preschoolers, and and a subjective assessment of their children’s relationship with food.

Results:
The level of parental nutrition knowledge were linked to the consumption frequency of various food groups. The greatest differences in consumption frequency were observed for: milk and dairy products (p<0.05), yellow and orange vegetables (p<0.01) and green vegetables (p<0.05). The children of parents with a high level of nutrition knowledge were more likely to accept novel products after repeated exposure (p<0.05). The healthy eating behaviours, identified as pattern I, were linked to the regular consumption of breakfast and 4–5 meals per day (p<0.01).

Conclusions:
In summary, Parents’ knowledge about nutrition had a significant impact on the diversity of their children’s diets. Parents with a high level of knowledge were more likely to follow recommendations regarding dietary diversity and meal frequency. The use of food as a reward was associated with the development of abnormal relationships with food in the study population.