The Development of Core Nutrition Education Messages Targeting Low-Income Mothers

An abstract of a study by White et al describing low-income mothers' perceptions of nutrition education messages on fruit and vegetable consumption and child feeding issues is presented. Mothers of preschoolers (PS-MOM) connected strongly with the idea of being role models and valued family meal times, but reported that "cooking" with their child was not feasible for time, safety or convenience reasons. Generally, PS-Moms discounted messages that encouraged them to provide healthy food choices and let the child decide how much to eat, exhibiting an overall disbelief that their child could accurately make such determinations. While, mothers of elementary school aged children connected with messages that served as reminders of their own observations and experiences. Overall, mothers preferred realistic and straightforward messages.