Student and Parent Response to Use of an Early Childhood Nutrition Education Program

A quasi-experimental pretest-post-test design was used to evaluate the impact of an early childhood nutrition education program on kindergarten students' familiarity with and stated willingness to eat 16 test foods. Thirteen classes of students were randomly assigned to control or intervention groups. The intervention groups were introduced to eight of the test foods using the program. Sixteen plastic food models, including the foods introduced in the program, were presented to each student at pretest and post-test seven months later. Students named foods they were familiar with and stated if they were willing to eat each food. Pretest and post-test parental questionnaires queried which of the 16 foods listed they thought their child was willing to eat. Familiarity with introduced foods increased over time in the intervention (P<0.0001) and control groups (P<0.01), but there was no significant increase in stated willingness to eat either introduced or non-introduced foods for either subject group. However, significantly more parents of the intervention group (P<0.001) than control group children reported their child had mentioned exposure to a food at school when requesting it at home. Children consistently stated they were willing to eat a greater number of foods than their parents perceived. The modest impact of this program draws attention to many factors nutrition educators must consider when evaluating early childhood nutrition education programs.