The aim of child health care is to promote health and development for all children, to early identify problems that concern children´s growth and development and to prevent ill-health among children. Today in our society the proportion of children who are underweight are few.
The aim with this study was to describe paediatric nurses experience in meeting with underweight children and their parents. Interviews were implemented and analyzed according to qualitative content analysis. Focus was placed on looking at differences and interpretations in the text content. The analyse resulted in six main categories, such as a need of sensitivity and a holistic view from the nurse, difficulties in handling the meeting because lack of tools. A positive experience which facilitated the meeting was the emotional sensitivity from the parents. In their work the nurses used different facilities. It was also described how the nurse influenced the meeting with the family.
It would be desirable to have guidelines for how to handle underweight children.