Combating Coercive Feeding: High 5 for Kids Observes Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Relation to
Common Parenting Strategies
Holly Bante, B.A., Kimberly Hessler, M.S., R.D., Amanda Harrod, M.P.H., Michael Elliott, Ph.D., Debra Haire-Joshu, Ph.D.
Background What is Coercive Feeding?
Less than 1/3 of children eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Strategies used in which a child is made to eat. Parent Educator-Visit Plan
The average adult consumes 3.6 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.
Impact of consuming one more serving of fruits and vegetables daily: Why do parents use Coercive Feeding strategies?
Risk of lung cancer would be reduced by 10%. Well-intentioned parents use these strategies to get a child to eat more of a certain type of food.
Purpose What are some common Coercive Feeding strategies?
One Bite Rule: forcing a child to eat at least one bite of everything on his plate.
Decrease risk for cancer by increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables and
increasing physical activity among parents and their children Clean Your Plate Rule: the child must eat everything on his plate before leaving the table.
Prevent diet-related cancers in families living in the Southeast corner of Missouri, Using Dessert as a Reward: parents often bribe their children to eat or engage in other
often called the bootheel. behaviors by offering dessert as a reward.
How do Coercive Feeding strategies negatively impact children?
Strategies that parents often use to increase consumption of foods may affect a child’s ability
to listen to internal huger and satiety cues, altering a child’s ability to self-regulate food intake
which may lead to childhood overweight.
Child Storybooks
Specific Aim
High 5 for Kids is a community based program designed to intervene with parents
to promote their preschool children’s (age 3-5) preference for and intake of fruits
Project Materials: The High 5 for Kids program includes 4 personal
and vegetables. visits, facilitated by parent educators, reinforcing each of the 4 core
themes.
Previous Research
Continuation of “High 5, Low Fat” (1997-2002)
Obesity Prevention Center: Saint Louis University School of Public Health Curriculum: Factors that influence children’s food intake and/or
Funded by: National Cancer Institute physical activity are presented in each personal visit:
Purpose: To decrease fat and increase fruit and vegetable intake through goal
setting. •Neophobia (see examples on right)
Results: Through nutrition education aimed at empowering parents with
appropriate child feeding techniques, H5LF successfully improved the dietary •Role-Modeling Parent Handouts and Recipes
intake of African American parents, as indicated by increased fruit and vegetable 7.29.02 Parent Handout 8.7.02 Parent Handout
intake, decreased fat consumption, increased frequency of low fat eating Recipes that fit your lifestyle!
•Food Availability/Accessibility
Enjoy your gift from Parents as Teachers and High 5 for Kids!
Read and play with your children. It’s healthy, and
behaviors, and parental role modeling of dietary behaviors.
As your child becomes more familiar with certain foods, he or she is
they love it! more likely to eat and like them. Try making these recipes to help
Act out scenes from the “Gone Bananas” book with them. your child become more familiar with fruit cocktail.
Ask your child questions about what happened in the book.
When serving the fruits and vegetables named in the book, talk
•TV Viewing
with your children about them. It’s a good way to help your child
learn colors and how to count.
Frozen Delights
Demographics You are your
When it comes to food, some things to remember:
If your child is shy about trying new foods, especially fruits and
vegetables, don’t worry. It’s normal. Try not to push him/her too
much. Be patient, wrap it up, and serve it later, when your child is
hungry.
The best way to get your child to eat these foods it to keep offering
Ingredients
12 oz frozen orange juice
concentrate
1 can fruit cocktail
Instructions
1. Child: In a large bowl, pour and mix orange juice, water, and fruit
cocktail.
2. Parent: Pour mixture into ice cube trays or paper cups.
child’s first and
Core Themes
1/2 cup water 3. Parent: Freeze until halfway frozen.
them. This will help your child become more familiar with them,
best teacher! which will help your child learn to like them.
4. Parent and Child: Scoop out and enjoy!
Characteristic (N = 1658) Try eating a serving of fruit cocktail today!
Fabulous Fruit Smoothie
Parent: MN age 28.9 ± 7.0 % Asking Skills: Children should learn to request fruits and vegetables from their parents. Rainbow Pudding
Ingredients
2 16-oz cans fruit cocktail
1 tbs lemon juice
1 pint frozen yogurt
Instructions
1. Parent: Open cans of fruit cocktail and drain, saving 1 cup of the
juice.
2. Parent: In a blender, combine fruit with saved juice and lemon
juice.
MN BMI 27.1 ± 6.2
Ingredients A healthy 3. Child: Slowly add frozen yogurt.
Parents should be responsive to their children’s requests of fruits and vegetables.
1 box vanilla pudding child-friendly 4. Parent: Blend until smooth.
1 large can fruit cocktail meal! 5. Parent and Child: Pour into cups and enjoy!
1 carton strawberries (optional)
Makes 5-6 servings.
Parent Gender Instructions
1.
2.
Parent and Child: Wash hands before starting.
Child: Drain the juice from the fruit and set aside.
Tip
For color and flavor, add
fresh fruit to the recipe!
Ingredients
Bug and Beetle Juice
and
Instructions
3. Child: Rinse other fruit (strawberries).
4. Parent: Chop fruit and set aside with the canned fruit cocktail. 1 46-oz can unsweetened 1. Child: In a large pitcher, combine pineapple juice, fruit cocktail
Male 1.6 Fruit and Vegetable Intake: Increase fruit and vegetable intake by one serving per day. 5.
6.
7.
Parent: Add water to fruit cocktail juice to make 1 1/2 cups of liquid.
Child: Combine pudding and liquid in a medium bowl.
Child: Mix pudding powder and liquid together until all lumps are gone
and mixture has thickened.
pineapple juice, chilled
2 15-oz cans fruit cocktail
1 cup raisins
1 scoop frozen yogurt (per
with juice (bugs), and raisins (beetles).
2. Parent: Put a scoop of frozen yogurt a glass or mug for each
person.
3. Parent: Add juice to the yogurt.
8. Child: Add fruit to the pudding mixture, stir, and serve! person) 4. Parent and Child: Enjoy with spoons or straws as a snack or
Female 98.4 Small, slow steps toward incorporating new and more fruits and vegetables into the routine diet. 9. Parent: Store leftovers in the refrigerator. dessert.
Parent Race
White 81.1 Quality of Fruits and Vegetables: Promote consumption of healthiest fruits and
African American 17.6 vegetables currently being eaten, but at less than the daily recommendation. Acknowledgements
Other 1.3 Parents as Teachers
National Cancer Institute
Parent Education Level Non-coercive Parenting: How food is presented to a child impacts his or her acceptance
High School or Less 16.2 of it. Parents use a variety of strategies to get their child to eat. Coercive feeding practices have
negative impacts on food consumption
High School Graduate 38.1
Some College or Technical School 24.8
College Graduate or More 20.8