Changing Eating Behaviors in Young Children: Should Healthy Foods be Increased or Unhealthy Foods Decreased?

Inclusion Criteria

• •1. Age between 4 and 9 years. We propose to use this age group since parents are in control of the eating and exercise choices of such children, and thus a program that focuses on parenting behaviors (i.e., positive reinforcement, stimulus control, parental modeling) should be developmentally appropriate. This age group also meets the Expert Committee's goal of intervening early5; moreover children aged 4 to 8 years have similar nutritional needs.
• •2. Body mass index (BMI) \> 85th percentile BMI. Based upon the Expert Committee recommendations,5 children \> 2 years of age who are identified as being at risk for overweight (85th to 94th percentile BMI) or overweight (\> 95th percentile BMI) should focus on weight maintenance as height continues to increase. These recommendations are aimed at reducing z-BMI.
• •3. Tanner stage 1 (prepubertal) sexual maturation status.
• •4. Self-report at least one of the following problematic behaviors:
• •1. Consume \< 2 servings per day of whole fruit (not juice) or \< 3 servings per day of vegetables.
• •2. Consume \> 1 serving of sweetened drink per day.
• •3. Consume \< 2 servings of low-fat milk per day.
• •4. Consume \> 4 times per week of sweet or salty snack foods.
• •5. A parent willing to attend treatment meetings.
• •6. Parent and child speak English.
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