Lovin' Spoonfuls is a video based nutrition education program directed to child care providers in diverse facilities, developed from focus group research. Focus groups revealed that providers are aware of the importance of developing healthy food habits, and are motivated to improve the way they feed children. They indicated high interest in involving families. In-home providers working alone, have difficulty planning menus and preparing meals. Most providers had received some nutrition training, but there are gaps in understanding specific requirements for infants and toddlers. Videos incorporating these concepts, address feeding practices for children from birth to age four using the Children's Food Guide Pyramid. Each packaged set, available in English and Spanish, includes two videos, reproducible recipes, and tips for parents. The program has four applications. First, each program package provides one hour of continuing education credit for child care providers when taught in a group setting. Secondly, the video can be used within an existing nutrition curriculum. Third, the program is approved by the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Services as a home based study. Fourth, in order to encourage family involvement with the child's nutritional wellbeing, trained child care providers are given a video set to share with families. Evaluation through pre and post testing of child care providers compares this training with current training modalities provided by child care agencies such as participation in lecture presentation.
Learning Objectives: 1. Recognize the effectiveness of focus groups as a measure to determine the training needs of child care providers. 2. Identify effective nutrition education resources for use with diverse child care facilities. 3. Describe essential components for the development of a cooperative relationship between child care providers and the families they serve.
Keywords: Child Care, Nutrition
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: The University of Georgia
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.