Use of an interactive game to increase food acceptance--a pilot study.
BACKGROUND
Techniques to improve food selection in healthy children with long standing food refusal are limited. The use of educational games has been successful in getting children to increase knowledge in healthy eating, but it is uncertain whether this translates into behaviour change. Therefore the purpose of this study was to test the use of an interactive food game to increase food acceptance in healthy-weight school-age children with chronic food refusal.


METHODS
Children attended an outpatient clinic and played an interactive game with a therapist and one parent during which non-preferred foods were consumed. Weekly recording of food consumption occurred with diet analysis by a Registered Dietitian three times during a 1-year time span.


RESULTS
The children increased their repertoire of foods and had a more balanced intake. The changes in intake were incorporated into their daily meal patterns in the home setting and were maintained for 1 year.


CONCLUSIONS
An interactive food game is a successful tool for increasing food variety in healthy children with chronic food refusal. As this report included only three subjects, the results will be used for subsequent work on this topic.
Gillis
L
L
Children's Exercise and Nutrition Centre, Chedoke Division, Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. gillisl@hhsc.ca
D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D010865:Pilot Projects; D016896:Treatment Outcome