Background and Aims
Fussy eating is common in childhood affecting up to 50% of children and involves a restricted diet, especially of vegetables. Establishing healthy eating behaviours in young children has long-term benefits for their health. Currently only 5% of children aged 5–15 years in New South Wales (NSW) are meeting the recommendations for vegetable intake.
This pilot before-and-after study assessed the impact of a suite of fussy eating resources developed for parents, childhood educators and children, on parent/educator confidence in promoting healthy eating messages, their feeding practices as well as children’s eating behaviours.
Methods
Educators and parents from Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services in Sydney, NSW were invited to participate in the study. A suite of resources was provided to participants including parent/educator factsheets, a children’s story book, song and video. A questionnaire was completed at baseline and at 3-months follow-up, which measured carer’s confidence in promoting healthy eating messages; feeding practices such as overt/covert restriction, persuasive feeding, structured meal timing and setting, reward for behaviour; and children’s eating behaviours.
Results
A total of 22 educators and 27 parents participated in the study. The intervention significantly reduced the fussiness in children (mean difference= -0.22, p=0.02) and the educators’ and parents’ practice of rewarding/punishing with food in exchange for finishing the meal (mean difference= 0.26, p=0.04).
Conclusion
Using this suite of fussy eating resources in a ECEC setting with educators, parents and children is feasible and the results are promising. A study with a larger sample size and more rigorous design could further demonstrate the impact of these resources.