Obesity Prevention in Head Start

Family style dining is a widely-advocated approach by which to feed children in early education settings. While family-style dining is hypothesized to allow children to attend to their hunger and satiety and consume only the amount of food they need to meet their energy needs, children's ability to self-regulate eating in this setting is dependent on a number of factors including early life experiences, the feeding strategies caregivers use during meals, and the eating environment. The goal of this study is to develop and implement a novel curriculum for childcare providers, Mealtime Matters, that addresses the factors that interfere with children's self-regulation of eating and offers caregivers strategies to reduce exposures that promote over-eating in the early education environment. Mealtime Matters will be pilot tested through a randomized controlled trial design with 7 Head Start classrooms, enrolling approximately 72 low-income preschool-aged children. Intervention feasibility and acceptability will be examined, as well as changes in caregiver/child mealtime interactions and children's dietary intake during meals at Head Start. Study results will inform the development of a fully-scaled efficacy trial.