DEVELOPMENT OF FOOD AND NUTRITIONAL MANAGEMENT MODEL FOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN BASED ON MOTHER’S FOOD GUIDELINE: A PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH

Abstract

Abstract

The aim of this participatory action research was to explore the current nutritional problem in preschool children and develop food and nutritional management model for preschool children. This model based on the mother’s food guideline that included “clean food”, “good nutrition”, and “made with love”. The study process comprised four steps namely plan, action, observation, and reflection. The participants were administrators, nurse instructors, babysitters, and parents whose children were attending the daycare center. Data collection took place from February 2017 – September 2017. The research instrument was a structured interview guide for conducting a focus group interview and in- depth interview, and the nutritional status questionnaire. The Index of Item-Objective Congruence (IOC) of the questionnaire was reviewed by experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested and reported at .84. Quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and qualitative data were analyzed by using content analysis. The results showed that: 1. The current situation showed that 72 % of the children lived in the single family. For nutritional status, 2 % were rather low weight; 6 % were rather overweight; and 2% were stunting and obesity. Children consumed food that prepared by family averaging 4-5 days/week. There were 74% of children who consumed fruits less than the recommended amount of daily fruit intake. Children onsumed sweetened food by adding sugar in cooked food (mean= 3.20, SD = 0.78). 2. The food and nutritional management model for preschool children based on mother’s food guideline consisted of: 1) determining mother’s food policies that included lunch project administration, breakfast arrangement, food quality control, safe food access, and nutritional surveillance; 2) increased nutritional knowledge of the parents, and 3) modifying mother’s food attitude by integrating the mother's food concepts into the learning course and father - mother school project.