“ What support do parents want from Children’s Centres to enable them to feed their children a healthy diet?” Ileana Cahill Public Health Hampshire County Council

Background Adequate nutrition in the early years is a significant public health issue. A large proportion children within the UK fail to meet the current dietary recommendations. Parents are a key influence on children’s diet. Children’s Centres are ideally placed to promote healthy eating.

Objective of the Study Explore the support parents receive from Children’s Centres, and support they feel they need to enable them to feed their preschool children a healthy diet.

Methods Focus groups discussions were held in Southampton, Gosport and Havant. Study population: 27 parents accessing Children’s Centres with pre-school aged children (aged 2-5 years) Sampling & Recruitment: Purposive sampling Aimed to run as many groups until saturation point reached.

Data Analysis What support do parents want from Children’s Centres to enable them to feed their child a healthy diet? What parents want Food Environment Shared experience of eating Provision of food Child’s involvement in food preparation Support General Food

Results The food environment: Children ate a more varied diet Eating food with other children appeared to have a positive impact More independent and develop food preparation skills “Well, they say my daughter eats fruit here but she doesn’t eat fruit at home.” “They always tell me how well she’s eaten…. Maybe its sitting at the table with lots of other children is a good thing for her.” “When she goes to Sure Start…and they’re doing fruit, she’ll be allowed to chop her own bit of fruit up and play with it.”

Results Support: Valued the support they currently received on diet and nutrition. Cooking gave them new knowledge, practical skills and confidence. Courses sometimes appeared to have limited impact at home, “The Cooking on a Budget was good because we don’t get a lot of money. You have to work out what you’ve got for that allowance.” “It’s all well and good when you’re there learning it. But when you’re at home in that situation, at that moment I’m not gonna think ‘oh I know! Let me get your wall chart out. ‘Cos it’s just like you said. It’s picking another battle.”

Results What parents want: More of the same type of support and unrealistic ideas. More support for new parents Less stressful home eating environment “I want someone to come round and cook it all.” “The thing is when you’ve got loads of challenging behaviours, the food one really becomes the bottom of the chain. As long as they eat, you really give up on the whole fighting food.” “You think ‘as long as my child is eating’. ‘Cos I mean in my house I’ve got children that attack each other. Disrespectful. Trash the home. So really one more fight over food. I’m not up for it.” “I’m saying that if we got more backing, the parents overall got more backing on courses from when the parent is pregnant.”

Public Health Implications Training and education for parents is not always sufficient to change dietary behaviours. Gap between the skills and knowledge learnt at Children’s Centres on diet and nutrition and their practical application. Need for extended support to enable translation of skills and knowledge into home environment.

Conclusions Modelling positive food environments. Applying new knowledge and skills at home sometimes challenging. To enable parents to apply knowledge and skills effectively, sustained and long term support is required.

Thanks to: The parents who took part in our focus groups. Dr Megan Jarman, Dr Mary Barker, Dr Wendy Lawrence, Dr Jane Murphy and Dr Chris Little. Those who support our work: