Effectiveness of different interventions in public nurseries based on food and nutrition education: Promoting breast-feeding and healthy complementary feeding

Abstract

Objective Food practices in the early years of life are important to form healthy eating habits; therefore, it is essential for the caregivers of infants to receive appropriate guidance. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of different nutritional interventions on complementary feeding practices in municipal nurseries.Design Non-randomized controlled intervention study with education professionals and parents of infants (<2 years). Participants were divided into: control group (CG), standard food and nutrition education in writing; and intervention group (IG), the same information as the CG and face-to-face meetings (professionals, 8 h; parents, 5 h). Changes in professionals' knowledge on the subject and alterations in parents' beliefs, attitudes and intentions were assessed using questionnaires before and after the educational activities.Setting Ten public nurseries in Nova Lima, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 2015.Subjects Ninety professionals (fifty in CG; forty in IG) and 169 parents (ninety-seven in CG; seventy-two in IG).Results After the intervention, there was a significant increase in the mean number of correct responses given by professionals in the IG (12·2 v. 10·7; P=0·001). In addition, there were improvements among the parents of the IG in relation to beliefs (soups and broths do not nourish my child: P=0·012), attitudes (offer meat from the sixth month: P=0·032) and intentions (do not offer soups and broths: P=0·003; offer vegetables: P=0·018; offer meat: P<0·001).Conclusions Face-to-face nutritional intervention had a significantly greater effect on the parameters evaluated, indicating the importance of adequate guidance in childcare services to support the introduction of complementary feeding.