A pilot feasibility study to improve food parenting practices

Objectives: We examined the feasibility and acceptability of a novel home-based intervention to improve the food parenting practices of low-income mothers with preschool-aged children. Methods: Mother-child dyads (N = 15) were recruited from WIC in southern Rhode Island. A non-experimental, pretest-posttest design was used to assess changes in maternal food parenting practices. Dyads participated in 3 home-based sessions that included baseline measures and an evening meal video recording at session 1, a motivational interviewing (MI) intervention that included feedback on the evening meal video recording at session 2, and a satisfaction questionnaire at session 3. Pretest-posttest measures included 5 subscales of the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire. Results: Fifteen mother-child dyads (mothers: 32.3, SD = 4.6 years, 86.7% white; children: 3.2, SD = 0.9 years, male = 73.3%, 66.7% white) completed the study. Mothers reported improvements in food parenting practices following the home-based MI intervention. Overall, 93% of mothers ‘strongly agreed’ that it was worth their effort to participate in the study. Conclusions: A home-based MI intervention may be an effective strategy for improving maternal food parenting practices in low-income populations. Most mothers found that watching themselves was informative and applicable to their own lives.