In order to prevent child obesity: New tool helps Nurses to talk about healthier habits to parents

• Introduction: A new tool for nurses to communicate healthier habits to parents of children at 18 months and 3 years of age has been developed and implemented by a registered dietitian at the children’s health care centre (CHCC) in Skaraborg, Sweden. The tool contains questions and information about meal order, drinks, candy, snacks, fat and physical activity. Our aim was to describe the nurses’ experiences of the tool and supervision from the registered dietician at the CHCC. Methods: The tool was evaluated after 14 months in practice. In three focus groups 17 nurses participated. A structured interview guide was used and the interviews were transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Findings were triangulated by a questionnaire within all nurses in Skaraborg (n = 76). Results: The nurses described their experiences in terms of comparison with the previous tool, practicability, parent’s reactions and improvement. Using the previous tool the nurses felt uncertain when talking about healthier habits. With the new tool the nurses expressed that they felt more confident. Parents were also more engaged in the dialogue. The discussion regarding physical activity was not satisfactory and the question needed improvement. The questionnaire showed, 98% of the nurses wanted to continue with the tool, and 86% found the question about physical activity needed revision. Conclusion: This is a new approach to prevent child obesity. The tool simplified the communication with parents and with supervision from dietitian, it lead to a higher quality in promoting healthier habits at CHCC.

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