BackgroundInterventions to prevent overweight and obesity in toddlers are needed to minimize health inequalities, especially in migration and lower socio-economic groups. Preschools are identified as important environments for interventions to prevent overweight and obesity. Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) teachers in preschools are potential key actors in promoting healthy eating and physical activity. This paper describes the research design of a Dutch preschool-based intervention for ECEC teachers in promoting healthy eating and physical activity in toddlers.MethodsPreSchool@HealthyWeight concerns a cluster randomized controlled trial on preschools in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, Netherlands. This city district is characterised by inhabitants with a migration background and low socio-economic status. Forty-one preschools, with 115 ECEC teachers and 249 toddlers/parents, were randomly allocated to an intervention or control group. An intervention for teachers will be carried out on intervention locations and consists of modified versions of 2 existing programs: ‘A Healthy Start’ and ‘PLAYgrounds’. In ‘A Healthy Start’, ECEC teachers learn to provide a healthy and active environment for toddlers. The ‘PLAYgrounds for Toddlers’ program, coaches ECEC teachers to stimulate physical activity in the playgrounds of preschools. PreSchool@HealthyWeight aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention after 9 months. Primary outcomes are the teachers’ knowledge, attitude and practices concerning healthy eating and physical activity, and consequently the level of confidence of ECEC teachers in promoting healthy eating and physical activity in toddlers. Secondary outcomes include the Body Mass Index, body composition, dietary intake and physical activity level of teachers and toddlers. In addition, the activating role of ECEC teachers and the physical activity of toddlers on the playgrounds will be evaluated. Lastly, the knowledge, attitude and practices of parents concerning healthy eating and physical activity will be assessed.DiscussionIt is hypothesized that this preschool-based intervention for ECEC teachers improves the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding healthy eating and physical activity, and consequently the level of confidence of ECEC teachers in promoting healthy eating and physical activity of toddlers. The intervention addresses the call for early intervention to prevent overweight and obesity and to minimize health inequalities.Trial registrationNetherlands Trial Register (NTR): NL5850. Date registered: August 26, 2016.
Picture books with characters that promote healthy eating are increasingly being used to make this behavior more attractive. The first aim of this study was to investigate whether the effect of vegetable promoting picture books on toddlers' vegetable consumption differed according to the reading style and the use of a hand puppet during reading. The second aim was to investigate whether these effects were mediated by toddlers’ narrative involvement and character imitation. In a 2 (reading style: interactive vs. passive) x 2 (puppet use: with vs. without puppet) between-subjects design, 163 toddlers (2e3 years) were randomly assigned to one of the four reading conditions. The story was about a rabbit that loves to eat carrots. After the fourth reading day, the eating task was conducted in which children could eat freely from four different snacks, including carrots. The main finding was that interactive reading produced the greatest carrot consumption. The explanation for this effect was that interactive reading stimulated toddlers to imitate poses of the book characters, even more when interactive reading was supported by the use of a hand puppet. The findings underline that young children should be actively involved with health interventions in order for them to be effective.
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Background and aimsThe aim of this study was to gain insight in the effect of a preschool-based intervention for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) teachers on promoting healthy eating and physical activity in toddlers.MethodsIn a cluster randomized controlled trial, 37 preschools of child care organization Impuls in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, the Netherlands, were randomly allocated to an intervention or control group. In total, 115 female ECEC teachers (mean age 42 ± 9 years) participated. The intervention for ECEC teachers consisted of two existing Dutch programs: ‘A Healthy Start’ and ‘PLAYgrounds’. The practices and knowledge of ECEC teachers concerning healthy eating and physical activity and the level of confidence in promoting healthy eating and physical activity in toddlers was assessed at baseline and 9 months of follow-up. To examine the effect of the intervention linear mixed models were used.ResultsPreliminary analyses of the practices indicated that Activity-related-Teaching/Autonomy-Support was increased in the intervention group (mean difference: 0.181), but not in the control group (mean difference: -0.048; p-value group*time: 0.025). Food-related-Pressure-to-Eat was decreased in the intervention group (mean difference: -0.580), but not in the control group (mean difference: -0.158; p-value group*time: 0.014). No effect of the intervention was found on knowledge (p-value group*time: 0.24) and the level of confidence (p-value group*time: 0.98) of ECEC teachers. ConclusionsThe preschool-based intervention seems to increase Activity-related-Teaching/Autonomy-Support and to decrease Food-related-Pressure-to-Eat. No effects were seen on knowledge and level of confidence of ECEC teachers in promoting healthy eating and physical activity in toddlers.
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This proposal aims to explore a radically different path towards a more sustainable fashion future through technology. Most research on fashion and technology focuses on high tech innovation and, as a result, overlooks knowledge that is already available and has been used, tested and improved for centuries. The proposed research project, however, looks backward to move forward. It aims to investigate ‘the blindingly obvious’ and asks the question how historical technologies could be used to solve contemporary environmental issues in fashion. It thus argues that technology from the past could inspire both designers and technologists to come up with new and exciting solutions to make the future of fashion more sustainable. The current fast fashion system has changed the relationship consumers have with their clothing. Clothing has become a throwaway object and this has severe environmental implications. This research project aims to find a solution by exploring historical technologies - such as folding, mending and reassembling-, because in the past a ‘sustainable’ attitude towards fashion was the norm simply because cloth and garments were expensive. It wants to examine what happens when consumers, fashion designers and technologists are confronted with these techniques. What would, for example, materialize when an aeronautical engineer takes the technique of folding as a starting point and aims to create clothes that can grow with babies and toddlers? The answer is the signature suit of the brand Petit Pli: a special folding technique allows their signature suit to grow with children from 3 months to 3 years. Much like the age-old folding techniques applied in traditional Dutch dress, which allowed the size women’s jackets to be altered, by simply adjusting the pleats. Similarly, this project aims to investigate how high tech solutions, can be initiated through historical techniques.
