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Parent packs, child eats: Surprising results of Lunch is in the Bag's efficacy trial
Cindy Roberts-Gray1, Nalini Ranjit2, Sara J Sweitzer3
1Third Coast R&D, Inc. 2728 Avenue Q Galveston, TX 77550, United States.
Insights
Children
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics and Child Nutrition
- Early Childhood Education and Nutrition
Background:
- Early care and education (ECE) centers requiring packed lunches offer insights into parent-child dietary behaviors.
- Understanding children's eating habits in ECE settings is crucial for promoting healthy development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of an intervention aimed at improving parent-provided lunches in ECE settings.
- To analyze children's food consumption patterns from packed lunches and their relationship with parent packing habits.
Main Methods:
- Observational study of parent-child dyads (N=633) aged 3-5 years at 30 Texas ECE centers.
- Randomized controlled trial with 15 centers in the 'Lunch is in the Bag' intervention group and 15 as controls.
- Data collection at baseline, post-intervention (6 weeks), pre-booster (22 weeks), and post-booster (28 weeks).
Main Results:
- The intervention led to increased vegetable consumption by children (14% prevalence increase).
- Parental lunch-packing behaviors reciprocated changes in children's eating.
- Children consumed 50-67% of packed food, with the eat-to-pack ratio remaining constant.
Conclusions:
- Children's food intake at ECE centers appears influenced by the perceived amount of available food.
- Dietary intake regulation in young children may be more sensitive to external cues than internal hunger/satiety signals.
- Interventions can positively influence children's dietary intake and parental packing habits in ECE settings.
Abstract:
Early care and education (ECE) centers that require lunch brought from home provide an uncluttered view of parent-child dietary interactions in early childhood. Children's eating from parent-provided bag lunches was observed at 30 ECE centers in Texas, with 15 randomly assigned to the Lunch is in the Bag intervention to improve the lunch meal and 15 to a wait-list control condition. Study participants were parent and child aged 3-5 years (N = 633 dyads). Data were collected at baseline (pre-intervention) and follow-ups at weeks 6 (post-intervention), 22 (pre-booster), and 28 (post-booster). Changes effected in the children's lunch eating-e.g., increase of 14 percent in prevalence of children eating vegetables (SE = 5, P = 0.0063)-reciprocated changes in parent lunch-packing. Irrespective of intervention, however, the children consumed one-half to two-thirds of the amounts of whatever foods the parents packed, and the eat-to-pack ratio did not change across time. Thus, children's lunch eating at the ECE centers appeared to be regulated by perceptual cues of food availability rather than food preferences or internal cues of hunger and satiety.
