Promoting Vegetable Intake in Preschool Aged Children

University of Leeds

Status: Completed

Conditions: Behavior; Food Habits; Health Behavior; Food Preferences

Treatments: Behavioral: Nutritional education; Behavioral: Taste exposure

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03003923

Chandani Nekitsing

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of this cluster randomised control trial is to test the efficacy of a repeated taste exposure intervention, a nutritional educational intervention and combination of both to increase intake of an unfamiliar vegetable in preschool aged children (aged 3-5 years).

Full description

The aim of this study is to test the efficacy of a repeated taste exposure intervention, a nutritional educational intervention and combination of both to increase intake of an unfamiliar vegetable in preschool aged children (aged 3-5 years). In particular the study will assess whether these strategies are effective to encourage intake of an unfamiliar vegetable in children who are fussy eaters or going through the food neophobia phase. The effectiveness of these interventions will also be observed overtime at 3 and 6 months post intervention.

Nurseries will be randomised into one of four conditions over the 12 week intervention period; these include educational intervention only, taste exposures only, taste exposures and educational intervention or no intervention (control group). All children will be offered an unfamiliar vegetable prior to the intervention and after the intervention to evaluate changes in intake of the unfamiliar vegetable. The repeated taste exposure groups will be offered the novel vegetable repeatedly (1 exposure per week) over the 12 week period. For the educational intervention nursery staff will be advised to deliver two components of an existing PhunkyFoods educational programme over the same period.

Parents will be asked some general demographic questions, child food behaviour questions and questions about their feeding practices. Finally nursery staff will be requested to provide feedback to evaluate intervention feasibility, barriers and efficacy.

It is predicted that children's intake of the unfamiliar vegetable will vary by intervention. The primary hypothesis to be tested is that children who receive the repeated taste exposures are more likely to increase their intake of the unfamiliar vegetable compared to those in educational only or control conditions. The second hypothesis is that repeated taste exposures will increase intake of an unfamiliar vegetable in fussy eaters more than education.

Enrollment: 140 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 2 to 5 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 2 to 5 years old
• Attends nursery on selected test day

Exclusion criteria

• Relevant food allergy (mooli / radish)
• Medical condition which would prevent them from eating the test vegetable

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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140 participants in 4 patient groups

Taste Exposure

Experimental group

Description:

Children will be repeatedly offered the single vegetable which is unfamiliar to them over the 12 week period. Children will be in their natural setting at nursery and will be offered 40g of the vegetable by their usual nursery staff. The vegetable will be weighed before and after using a digital scale by the researcher.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Taste exposure

Nutritional Education

Experimental group

Description:

Nursery staff will be trained by the PhunkyFoods team to deliver the nutritional education programme. Children will be taught Eat Well (learning about different food groups) and Strive for Five (learning about eating fruits and vegetables) components of the PhunkyFoods education programme by their usual nursery staff. Nurseries will be advised to deliver as much as possible of the two components over the 12 week period.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Nutritional education

Taste Exposure and Nutritional Education

Experimental group

Description:

Children will be repeatedly offered a single unfamiliar vegetable over the 12 week period as well as receive the PhunkyFoods educational programme (Eat Well and Strive for Five components). Children will be in their natural setting at nursery and will be offered the vegetable and nutritional education by their usual nursery staff.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Taste exposure

Behavioral: Nutritional education

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Children will be offered single unfamiliar vegetable at the beginning, end and at the follow-up. There will be no repeated taste exposure or education during the study phase or follow-up; they will be offered the nutritional education after the study has completed.