Nutrition Intervention Paper

in the mothers group (Coreil, 2009). This belief will be an important determinant to the success of adding fruits and vegetables to the toddlers’ diets. If the mothers’ self-efficacy is low, this means that they don’t think that they can make or change the desired behavior (Coreil, 2009).
Program Participants
The program participants will be mothers of children aged 1-3 years old. Participants will be pulled from a convenient sample of mothers in a mother-baby exercise group that meets regularly, called Stroller Strides, based in Riverside, California. The group is currently comprised of seventy-one members who actively contribute to discussions in the online private Facebook group called Fit4MOM-Riverside Mamas. These mothers will be approached
to complete a pretest assessment and partake in online only training, giving them the choice as to whether to participate or not. At this time the mothers will be notified of all requirements for the study, and given a chance to opt in or out. These health-conscious mothers are likely to be open to the nutritional training provided through the intervention. The mother’s participation will consist of filling out the questionnaires, watching and reading the educational materials from the Choose My Plate website, participating in the online forum, providing the fruits and veggies, and serving them with enthusiasm to their toddlers. The questionnaire will encompass questions about the habits of the mothers as well as the children; they will report their current eating habits in the home for all meals throughout the day. Since it is established that parental fruit, vegetable, and snack intake is a significant influence associated with the child’s subsequent intake, maternal consumption plays an imperative role (Hart et al., 2010). Children compose the second group of participants. They are aged from 1-3 years old, both male and female, and are from a variety of ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds. They will be learning, along side their mothers, about healthy nutritional choices while consuming the fruits and vegetables prepared for them. This will be accomplished by showing them toddler-based videos from various sources, to make consumption of healthy foods interesting and fun.
The intervention will be nutritional education with interactive group participation that aims to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in toddler diets.
It will consist of a pretest questionnaire, weekly (for the two weeks) information training with daily tips and tricks, and a posttest questionnaire. The intervention program will be based online for a two-week duration. This group of mothers already has daily communication through the Fit4mom Riverside community page on Facebook. There are currently seventy-one members in the group, this intervention will be open to all who are willing to participate and will be based on those who complete the pretest questionnaire. The training will begin with a video and an e-pamphlet. Following the initial training, daily tips, tricks and recipes for helping toddlers increase their plant-based intake will be posted. The mothers will learn from one another and share what they feel is conducive to changing the eating habits of their children. The second week will begin with another video or e-pamphlet providing more nutritional insights and then continue on through the same as the first. The intervention will end with a posttest after the two weeks of online training and communication. The pre-and posttests will be evaluated to see if there was an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption for the
toddlers.
Mission Statement, Goal, and Objectives

Mission Statement

The purpose of Mothers on A Mission is to encourage healthy behaviors in toddlers.

Goals

To improve nutritional habits by increasing vegetable and fruit consumption.