Parent packs, child eats: Surprising results of Lunch is in the Bag‘s efficacy trial

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.

Food Photography as a Tool to Assess Type, Quantity, and Quality of Foods in Parent-Packed Lunches for Preschoolers

“…The idea that young children eat a consistent amount of what they are offered at lunch, when they like the foods included, has been seen in other studies, 7,34,35 even when an intervention results in changes to what parents are packing. 35 For those lunches that included healthful foods such as vegetables, fruit, and whole grains, children are actually eating these items. In the interviews, participants expressed a tension between wanting to pack something healthful and something they knew their child would eat.…”

Intervención para modificar hábitos alimentarios en los refrigerios de escolares de una ciudad fronteriza México / Estados Unidos

“…Roberts-Gray et al ( 32 ) realizaron una intervención de seis semanas y reportaron un incremento en el número de porciones de verduras (0.17, p < 0.001) y cereales integrales (0.30, p < 0.018) en comparación con el GC. En el 2018, Roberts-Gray et al ( 33 ) realizaron otra intervención aumentando a 28 semanas y reportaron que el 14% de niños aumentaron el consumo de verduras ( p = 0.006) y cereales integrales ( p = 0.010). Sweitzer et al ( 34 ) realizaron una intervención con los padres de preescolares, a los que les fueron enviados folletos a casa, integraron actividades padre-hijo, y docente-escolar dentro de la escuela, por 26 semanas, al cabo de las cuales los autores observaron que el GI aumentó las porciones de verduras y cereales integrales.…”

Gender Differences in Nutritional Quality and Consumption of Lunches Brought from Home to School

“…The findings can serve as a basis for encouraging parents to focus on variety of foods when packing lunch and help educators in designing appropriate nutrition education and health promotion classes for parents, and students. This will help ensure that students eat healthy lunches since previous studies on interventions observed some improvements in food and nutrient content of meals brought from home to school for lunch [ 30 , 31 ]. In addition, Farris et al [ 15 ] urged that parents involve their children in meal planning and give them autonomy in choosing vegetables, like between baby carrots and sliced cucumbers.…”