Recruiting

Healthy Children

Sponsor:

University of Nebraska Lincoln

Code:

NCT07160530

Conditions

Childhood Obesity Pevention

Diet Quality

Feeding Behaviors

Health Behavior Change

Rural Health

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 3+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

EAT Family Style

Better Kid Care

Study Details

Brief summary:

The purpose of this study is to find out whether a program called "Healthy Children, Healthy Communities" can help young children in rural areas eat healthier and improve their health. The study focuses on children ages 3 to 5 who attend family childcare homes in rural communities.

The main goal is to see if the program can:

Help children eat healthier foods, like more fruits and vegetables.

Support childcare providers in using positive mealtime practices that encourage healthy eating.

The study will involve about 120 licensed family childcare providers in rural areas who participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), along with about 240 children they care for.

Childcare providers will be randomly placed into one of two groups:

EAT Family Style Group (Intervention Group):

Complete 7 online training modules over 16 weeks about healthy mealtime practices.

Join 7 individual coaching sessions on Zoom.

Record short videos of their mealtimes to get personalized feedback from a coach.

Work with a coach to set goals and make plans to improve mealtimes.

Receive printed materials and conversation cards to use during meals.

Some providers may join Zoom interviews to share their experiences.

Better Kid Care Group (Comparison Group):

Complete 10 online modules about general childcare topics like child development, oral health, play, and managing a childcare home.

For both groups, the research team will:

Ask providers to fill out online surveys about how mealtimes work in their childcare homes.

Visit the childcare homes to observe and record children's mealtimes on two days at each data collection point.

Measure the height and weight of participating children.

Use a painless skin scanner (Veggie Meter) to check how many fruits and vegetables children have been eating.

Ask providers to complete surveys about the children's eating habits.

The study focuses on rural, low-income communities, where children are at higher risk of having poor diets and obesity compared to children in urban areas. Information will be collected at the start of the study, after 16 weeks, and again after 24 weeks to see if there are lasting changes.

Conditions

Childhood Obesity Pevention

Diet Quality

Feeding Behaviors

Health Behavior Change

Rural Health

Study ID

NCT07160530

Start date

Sep 25, 2025

Status verified date

Aug, 2026

Completion date

May 31, 2029

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Dec 20, 2028

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 3+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

FCCH Settings:

  • Licensed family child care home-based early child care and education settings
  • Located in RURAL Nebraska or Kansas
  • Participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
  • Care for at least 2 preschool-aged children (3-5 years old) without feeding disorders or developmental delays
  • Provide meals and snacks to attending children
  • Located in a county designated as nonmetropolitan based on the 2023 rural urban continuum codes.

FCCH Providers:

  • Currently caring for at least two eligible 3-5 year old children who consume at least one meal and one snack in the program for at least two days per week.
  • Present with children during meals and snacks
  • Over the age of 19 years
  • Have not participated in the intervention before

Children:

  • Between 3 to 5 years old
  • Must consume at least one meal and one snack in the program for at least two days per week.
  • No dietary restrictions or feeding disorder that impact how they eat (lactose intolerance, egg/nut allergies, or vegetarian diet are acceptable)
  • Typically developing children (no diagnosis of developmental delays as identified by childcare providers)
  • Have a parent or guardian 19 years of age or older to consent for them

Exclusion Criteria:

FCCH Providers:

  • FCCH provider closes the business
  • FCCH provider stops serving meals to children
  • FCCH provider discontinues participation in CACFP and no longer adheres to CACFP meal pattern requirements
  • FCCH provider loses all eligible study children due to children leaving care, developing developmental delays or feeding disorders, or other reasons making them ineligible

Children:

  • Diagnosis of dietary restrictions or feeding disorder that impact how they eat (soft diet requirements or difficulty swallowing that impacts how they eat)
  • Diagnosis of developmental delays

Study Design

Enrollment

360 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Prevention

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

active comparator: Arm 2. Better Kid Care

Arm 2: Rural family childcare home providers receive 10 online modules about general childcare topics unrelated to nutrition, including child development, block play, oral health, supervising children, and managing a family childcare home through the Better Kid Care platform.

experimental: Arm 1: EAT Family Style

Arm 1: Rural family childcare home providers receive 7 online modules on responsive feeding practices over 16 weeks, plus 7 individual coaching sessions via Zoom with Extension agents. Providers record mealtime videos for personalized feedback, engage in goal-setting and action planning, and receive printed materials and conversation cards.

Interventions

EAT Family Style

Rural family childcare home providers receive 7 online modules on responsive feeding practices over 16 weeks, plus 7 individual coaching sessions via Zoom with Extension agents. Providers record mealtime videos for personalized feedback, engage in goal-setting and action planning, and receive printed materials and conversation cards.

Better Kid Care

Rural family childcare home providers receive 10 online modules about general childcare topics unrelated to nutrition, including child development, block play, oral health, supervising children, and managing a family childcare home through the Better Kid Care platform.

Primary outcome measure

  • Change in children's observed combined fruit and vegetable consumption [16 weeks] [ Time Frame: From baseline to 16 weeks post-intervention ]
  • Change in children's observed combined fruit and vegetable consumption [24 weeks] [ Time Frame: From baseline to 24 weeks post-intervention ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Dipti Dev, PhD

402-472-2605unlhealthychildren@unl.edu

Locations

University of Nebraska Lincoln

Recruiting

Lincoln, Nebraska, United States, 68588

More Information

Sponsor

University of Nebraska Lincoln

Last update posted

Sep 1, 2026

Last verified

Aug, 2026

Keywords

  • Rural population
  • Feeding Behavior
  • Child Care
  • Child Feeding
  • Carotenoids
  • Body Mass Index

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of Nebraska Lincoln on 2026-09-01.