Introduction
Sleep, nutrition, and emotional regulation are important for child development and family wellbeing. Deficits in these areas may negatively influence children's development and add to parental responsibilities and stress. In South Africa, parents often struggle to access health-related information and support, highlighting the need for focused and practical educational interventions. Understanding parents' challenges and preferences for receiving support is therefore essential for designing effective, accessible, and contextually appropriate interventions.


Purpose
This mixed-methods study explored the challenges South African parents face in managing their young children's sleep, nutrition, and emotions, and examined the preferred formats and timing for receiving psychoeducational support.


Method
Parents of children during infancy and early childhood completed an online survey to explore the challenges and support needs of their children. The survey included a combination of open-ended narrative, multiple-choice, and Likert-scale items on perceived challenges in three domains: sleep, nutrition, and emotions. Parents also indicated preferred formats for psychoeducation interventions (e.g., WhatsApp/social media, pamphlets, videos, workshops) and the times they would most likely access such resources. Descriptive and content analyses were conducted.


Results
The analyses suggest that parents experience a wide range of challenges across all three domains, with sleep difficulties being most frequent during infancy, and eating and emotional challenges more common during early childhood. In terms of support, most parents preferred easily accessible, flexible formats such as WhatsApp/social media content and short videos, with workshops (both online and in-person) being less frequently selected. Evening and weekend times appeared to be the most preferred periods for engaging with support materials.


Conclusion
Findings highlight the everyday difficulties South African parents experience in supporting young children's sleep, nutrition, and emotional wellbeing. It illustrates the need for tailoring interventions to parental preferences. The findings will inform the development of an intervention to enhance parenting effectiveness and child wellbeing.