Barriers to Healthy Lifestyles for Pre-school kids-- Central Michigan University Research for WCMU’s “Healthy Weight in Pre-school Children” project This report summarizes the responses of 182 parents of Head Start preschoolers to a series of questions about issues related to healthy eating, meals, and physical activity in their young children. These parents participated in a 15-minute telephone interview that constitutes the September, 2004 pretest phase of the healthy Lifestyles in Preschool Children project of CMU Public Broadcasting. This project was funded by the Michigan Nutrition Network and has benefited from the active cooperation of the Mid Michigan Community Action Agency and Michigan Community Coordinated Child Care. Key findings from the analysis follow. • More than 80 percent of the parents surveyed are female, with a median age of 33 years. While one half of parents have 12 or fewer years of schooling, one half completed some college. About three quarters of parents report that they have used some form of food assistance in the past, with more than one third of respondents telling interviewers that someone in their household is currently using Food Stamps. • Parents offer their preschool child nutritious foods at their main meal, and most children eat the foods and drink the beverages offered to them. More than one half of parents report offering their preschool child each of the following foods/beverages: at least one vegetable, milk, at least one starch, and at least one meat. Milk, juice, and water are the beverages most likely to be served at one or another meal. • Most parents present a variety of foods at the main meal, with the median number of items served being four. While children do not eat everything that is offered to them, the median number of items eaten is three. • Nonetheless, about 40 percent of parents report that their child is a “picky eater.” Children defined as “picky” are most likely to dislike vegetables, followed by meat. About one third of these children dislike an “isolated” series of food (such as “chocolate, strawberries, tomatoes, orange juice.”) “Picky eaters” eat fewer food/beverage items at the main meal than other children. • Parents find that the biggest barriers to serving the meals they would most like to serve are not having enough time to cook, people’s likes and dislikes for specific foods, and the differing schedules of family members. • About one quarter of parents report that they plan several days’ meals in advance, while almost 20 percent decide what to eat when people are hungry. About 40 percent of respondents use convenience foods on “most” or “some days,” while about 15 percent never use such foods. • Most parents report introducing new foods once or twice a month, and more than one quarter never introduce new foods. These parents report that it is difficult to introduce new foods because such foods are difficult to fix and because children do not want them. More than one half of parents report that they will fix something different if a family member does not like what is prepared for a meal. • More than 60 percent of parents report that they regularly serve their preschool child a planned snack; however, almost three quarters also tell interviewers that their preschooler can help himself or herself to foods/beverages at times between meals and such planned snacks. • Parents serve their children a wide variety of snack or between-meals foods. The foods that are most likely to be served at these times are nutritious foods such as fresh fruit, crackers, fruit juice, water, or milk. On the other hand, about 45 percent of parents report their preschool child usually eats one or more “bad snack” foods/drinks (such as gum fruits, fruit drinks, or chips). • The vast majority of respondents report that their family usually sits down together for the main meal, although more than 40 percent report that someone in the family usually watches television during the main meal. • Parents have established a variety of rules to organize mealtimes with their children—rules such as “take one bite of everything,” “finish certain foods before getting dessert,” and “finish everything on the plate before asking for seconds.” Most parents allow their preschool child to make choices about what to eat and drink from the meal that is prepared; however, more than 50 percent of parents report that they sometimes argue with their children about food and eating. • Food is used as both a reward and a punishment in many homes: more than 60 percent of parents tell interviewers that they sometimes give their preschooler special food when s/he is “good,” and almost one half of parents tell interviewers that they cannot “do something special or have a special treat unless s/he does a good job eating the main meal.” • Most parents report that their preschool child is physically active everyday in both the winter and the summer, although such large muscle group activity is more common in the summer than the winter. Sixty percent of respondents report that their preschool child spends between 61 minutes and three hours in front of a television/computer/video game screen in a typical day, and almost 15 percent report more than three hours of such inactivity on a daily basis. More than 60 percent of parents report that they do have rules about TV/computer/video game time, with the most common rule limiting such behavior to between one and two hours per day. • More than 70 percent of parents give children “a chance for more physical activity as a reward for good behavior” either “often” or “sometimes.” Parents are much less likely to “take away a chance for physical activity as a punishment for poor behavior,” with only about 25 percent of parents doing so “often” or “sometimes.” • More than 85 percent of parents have the ability to play CD’s and to play DVD’s in their home, and more than 60 percent have home access to e-mail and the Internet. • Parents are most likely to report that they prefer to receive information to help their child and family through their CAPS preschool, through print material, through public television, and through parents’ groups. • Twenty percent of parents answered affirmatively—near the end of the interview—when asked “is there anything you are worried or concerned about regarding” your preschool child. Parents articulated a variety of specific concerns with the most common being a child’s “picky” eating.