None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Appetite self-regulation is the process by which we stop eating when we are no longer hungry and has been identified as a resilience-informed approach to promoting a healthy bodyweight. Our objective was to investigate the acceptability and preliminarily short-term effectiveness of ‘Feeding with HEART’, a communication tool designed to increase knowledge and motivate parents to engage in positive feeding strategies associated with developing appetite self-regulation in children aged 3-6 years, using value-based messaging, storytelling, and metaphor.
Interventions
A 20-minute online video, which introduced the 'Feeding with HEART' tool, was emailed to participants in the intervention group, The entire content of the intervention is delivered during the 20-minute online video. The video was designed to address negative parental feeding practices by using storytelling to surface values associated with responsive feeding practices, change parental beliefs about child appetite self-regulation using metaphor to increase understanding, create a positive emotion
A 20-minute online video, which introduced the 'Feeding with HEART' tool, was emailed to participants in the intervention group, The entire content of the intervention is delivered during the 20-minute online video. The video was designed to address negative parental feeding practices by using storytelling to surface values associated with responsive feeding practices, change parental beliefs about child appetite self-regulation using metaphor to increase understanding, create a positive emotional response using narrative, and then introduce the ‘Feeding with HEART’ roadmap, which included evidence-based positive feeding practices related to the development of child appetite self-regulation, which included the content from the initial pilot study The ‘Feeding with HEART’ roadmap was designed to support children’s journey to becoming confident and healthy eaters. The H in HEART stands for ‘Helping’ and is about encouraging children to be involved in helping around meals. Practical suggestions for doing this were provided. The E stands for ‘Environment’, and involves removing distractions from the mealtime environment, such as screens, clutter, and overwhelming children with too much food on the plate. The A stands for ‘Ace’ and is borrowed from Katie Kimball’s ‘Kids Cook Real Food™’. This is about starting the meal with the food the caregiver most wants their child to eat or try. It is based on the principle that when we are hungry, food tastes better. The R stands for ‘Rules’, and this step introduced evidence-based guidelines for responsive feeding practices. Finally, the T in HEART stands for ‘Trust’. This is about the need for children to feel safe to eat and therefore the importance of strengthening the child-parent connection around mealtimes. A summary of the programme was provided at the end of the online course with details of the programme also emailed to parents so they could refer to it. We did not monitor adherence to the intervention.
Sponsors
University of Auckland
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Parents or primary caregivers of children aged 3–6 years, aged at least 18 years who lived in New Zealand, had access to the internet, were able to provide electronic informed consent, and could speak and read English.
Exclusion criteria
Parents and caregivers of a child: * With a significant developmental disorder, including autism * With a significant eating issue * Who struggles with a significant lack of interest in food * Who avoids most foods because they could not tolerate the texture or consistency.
Outcome results
None listed