Increasing Vegetable Intake in Children

The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility of an innovative approach to increase
the amount of vegetable's (V) intake consumed by preschool children who are predominately
African-American (AA) and Hispanic-American (HA).The primary endpoint will be changes in V
consumption in high school children with the hypothesis that a puppet intervention will
increase their V consumption by preschool children. To achieve the project goal, our specific
aims (SA) are to: SA1: Successfully recruit 6 preschool (PS) centers and 168 AA and 168 HA
children 3 to 5 y enrolled there. SA2: Conduct individual interviews for formative assessment
of the PUPPET shows. SA3: Develop the manual of operation and intervention protocols SA4:
Develop 4 videotaped theatre-based PUPPET shows that are developmentally and cognitively
appropriate for use with 3- to 5-year-old AA and HA children SA5: Pilot-test the feasibility
of the PUPPET intervention with 3 intervention and 3 control HS centers. SA6: Use the data
collected in Aim 5 to estimate parameters required to conduct a group randomized trial for an
evaluation of the efficacy of the intervention. The primary hypothesis (H1) to be tested is
that children who receive the PUPPET intervention will demonstrate increased V consumption in
HS compared to children in the control group.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Healthy

- non-patient

- normals

- African-american

- Hispanic-american

- 3 to 5 y olds

Exclusion Criteria:

- pregnant woman

- neonates

- dietary restrictions

- chronic disease

- developmental disabilities

- special education

- does not read or write in spanish or english