Mommio: Training in Vegetable Parenting

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Status: Withdrawn

Conditions: Obesity

Treatments: Behavioral: Mommio

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Industry; NIH

Identifiers

NCT02215421

R44HD075521 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

H-33915

Details and patient eligibility

About

A 20 episode video game called Mommio simulates parent-child feeding interactions for parents of 3-5 year old children within a storyline addressing a problem commonly reported by parents (getting their 3-5 yo to taste a vegetable, which is often a first step toward eating the vegetable), thereby training parents in effective food parenting practices. This research evaluates whether the 20 episodes targeting barriers identified by parents across five levels of difficulty influences vegetable parenting practices and children's dietary intake. We had to discontinue the study since changes in commercial availability of game development software required reprogramming and available funding did not allow for completion of game programming. Thus, no game evaluation was possible.

Full description

Video games for parents that simulate interactions with a child using a narrative, offering feedback on performance and goal setting for changing practices in the real world, and addressing vegetable (V) feeding problems commonly reported by parents, may elicit desirable cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes.

The rationale for training parents of preschool children in effective V parenting practices is that: 1) parents have an important influence on young children's dietary intake; 2) child dietary intake tracks into the adult years; and 3) high V consumption protects against several chronic diseases later in life. Since parents of young children commonly complain about not getting their child to eat V, there should be broad interest in playing Mommio.

A pre-post randomized clinical trial with 110 parents of 3-5 year olds who report having difficulty getting their child to eat vegetables will be employed. The primary outcome will be parent report of children's dietary intake; the secondary outcome will be use of V parenting practices.

We had to discontinue the study since changes in commercial availability of game development software required reprogramming and available funding did not allow for completion of game programming. Thus, no game evaluation was possible.

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 45 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• being a parent of a child 3-5 years old
• willing to complete all measures
• having an iPhone.

Exclusion criteria

• the parent not speaking English (since the games are in English alone, due to budget constraints);
• having a 3-5 year old child with a medical condition that influences diet; or
• a parent with an illness that impairs the ability to complete questionnaires

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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0 participants in 2 patient groups

Play Mommio for 2 months

Experimental group

Description:

The objective is to build parent's skills in encouraging their child to eat vegetables. The player is asked to read a novella, "Totally Frobisher" (providing backstory to the game), and play a game called Mommio (a "casual" video game for parents of 3 to 5 year old children). The player calls Kiddio, the child character, to dinner, and offers a vegetable (V) (selected from among several). Kiddio refuses. The player is offered a selection of V parenting statements (from the scientific literature on food parenting) or manipulation of the environment (e.g. turning off the kitchen TV) to control the situation and encourage the child to eat the V. As problems arise (e.g. a permissive father saying he doesn't like vegetables), the player must select ways to cope. Players set a goal to do with their child at home what they learned in the game. Game episodes include food store shopping, eating in the car, at grandma's, and at a fast food store.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Mommio

No game play

No Intervention group

Description:

No intervention control.