Clinical trial NCT05780008: Eat My ABCs Project
Official title: Eat My ABCs: Integrate Healthy Eating Into School Readiness
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: PHASE2
PHASE3
Conditions: Nutrition, Healthy
Obesity, Childhood
Lead sponsor: Michigan State University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Michigan Health Endowment Fund
First posted: 2023-03-22
Enrollment: 202
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 3
Maximum age (years): 5
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Intervention model description: This will be a one-group quasi-experimental design.
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: Evaluate the effects of the "Eat My ABCs" program on improving Head Start preschoolers' eating behavior and anthropometric properties (BMI, percent body fat).

Detailed description: The 14-week, community-led, program, aimed to establish lifelong healthy eating habits among vulnerable low-income preschoolers living in rural Michigan, includes three main components: (1) "Eat My ABCs" child curriculum, (2) child fruit/vegetable letters to parents, and (3) program cookbook.

"Eat My ABCs" Child Curriculum. Head Start teachers, along with teacher assistants/aids, will independently teach the age appropriate "Eat My ABCs" curriculum per week, for a total of 14 weeks. The "Eat My ABCs" curriculum follows the alphabet theme and incorporates the five senses into learning (hear fruit and vegetable information, see the color, feel the texture, smell the scent, and taste the flavor). Each week includes two sessions: 1) healthy eating learning on one fruit and one vegetable by incorporating school readiness knowledge on numbers, shapes, colors, and alphabets; and 2) food taste-testing activities to expose children to one fruit, one vegetable, and relevant food items made from the one fruit and one vegetable to teach children the creative ways to make fruit/vegetable healthy and tasty.

Child Letter to Parents. Every week, each child will create one letter, using stickers, regarding the one fruit and one vegetable presented in the program that he/she tasted or wanted to try at home.

Program Cookbook. The investigators have developed a targeted program cookbook for low-income families to overcome their limited cooking skills, busy schedules, and tight family budget. The program cookbook contains all budget-friendly recipes for healthy breakfasts, family meals, quick-fixes, kid-friendly snacks, and occasional sweets; and these recipes are culturally appropriate with a variety of choices such as American, Italian, Mexican, and Asian cuisines. In the cookbook, the investigators also promote slow /pressure-cooking recipes as using a slow or pressure cooker to prepare easy but healthy meals is an effective way to overcome low-income parent barriers of lack of time and cooking skills. In addition, the cookbook contains creative ways of making fruit/vegetable healthy, tasty, and kid-friendly at home.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Any preschoolers aged 3-5 years old from the participating daycare classrooms.
* Having parental consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

* None

Primary outcomes:
measure: Child's BMI
timeFrame: Change from week 0 (Time 1) to week 15 (Time 2)
measure: Percent body fat
timeFrame: Change from week 0 (Time 1) to week 15 (Time 2)
measure: Skin carotenoids
timeFrame: Change from week 0 (Time 1) to week 15 (Time 2)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Parent fruit/vegetable/fiber intake
timeFrame: Change from week 0 (Time 1) to week 15 (Time 2)
measure: Household food insecurity
timeFrame: Change from week 0 (Time 1) to week 15 (Time 2)
measure: Parental feeding skills
timeFrame: Change from week 0 (Time 1) to week 15 (Time 2)
measure: Parental food resource management behavior
timeFrame: Change from week 0 (Time 1) to week 15 (Time 2)
measure: Home eating environment
timeFrame: Change from week 0 (Time 1) to week 15 (Time 2)
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Alpena
country: United States
facility: Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency
state: Michigan
city: Kalkaska
country: United States
facility: Northwest Michigan Community Action Agency
state: Michigan
Study officials:
References: