Psychosocial outcomes of Lunch is in the Bag, a parent program for packing healthful lunches for preschool children.

Objective: This pilot study evaluated effects of Lunch is in the Bag on behavioral constructs and their predictive relationship to lunch-packing behaviors of parents of young children.

Methods: Six child care centers were pair-matched and randomly assigned to intervention (n = 3) and comparison (n = 3) groups. Parent/child dyads participated.

How to help parents pack better preschool sack lunches: advice from parents for educators.

Objectives: This exploratory study obtained parent suggestions about messages and activities to guide parents to pack healthful sack lunches for preschool-aged children.

Methods: A facilitator conducted group interviews using a modified nominal group technique with a convenience sample of parents who pack daily lunches for their children. Interviews took place after hours at child care centers in group settings.

Lunch is in the bag: increasing fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in sack lunches of preschool-aged children.

Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are important sources of nutrients for healthy growth and development of young children. Recent evidence suggests that sack lunches packed by parents for children to consume at child-care centers do not regularly meet the goal of one serving of fruit, vegetables, and whole grains. Lunch Is In The Bag is a child-care center-based nutrition education program targeted at parents of preschool-aged children to increase the number of servings of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in sack lunches sent from home that was pilot tested in fall 2008.

Microbial evaluation of foodservice surfaces in Texas child-care centers.

Children under the age of 5 years experience a disproportionately high rate of bacterial enteric infections. Research has shown a relationship between inadequate child-care center sanitation and illnesses in children. This cross-sectional study assessed the sanitation levels of foodservice surfaces in a sample of 36 Texas child-care centers via recovery and identification of selected enteric gram-negative bacteria.