Development and Evaluation of SENSE-ational Mealtimes: a Book for Families with Mealtime Difficulties

Many families with young children experience mealtime difficulties whereby the child eats a limited range of foods and/or refuses new food. Clinical interventions typically include behaviour training, enhancement of parenting skills and nutrition education. Clinical experience and a review of the li...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Stapleton, Denise, Griffiths, G., Sherriff, Jillian
Format: Journal Article
Published: Routledge 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/23681
_version_ 1848751217536139264
author Stapleton, Denise
Griffiths, G.
Sherriff, Jillian
author_facet Stapleton, Denise
Griffiths, G.
Sherriff, Jillian
author_sort Stapleton, Denise
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Many families with young children experience mealtime difficulties whereby the child eats a limited range of foods and/or refuses new food. Clinical interventions typically include behaviour training, enhancement of parenting skills and nutrition education. Clinical experience and a review of the literature across several domains suggested that interventions that optimise reflective functioning and understandings about sensory preferences at mealtimes are needed for both mild and complex mealtime difficulties. This study describes the development of the SENSE-ational Mealtimes book for families with mealtime difficulties and reports the findings of the initial evaluation. A questionnaire was used to assess the change in the frequency of difficult mealtimes, level of concern, understandings, feelings and goals of mothers 2 months after the book was distributed in a community setting. Mothers also provided feedback regarding helpfulness of the book, needs of families and recommendations. There was a statistically significant improvement in all aspects, namely frequency of mealtime difficulties, level of concern, understandings, feelings and goals. The subjective data indicated that the concepts instrumental in enhancing most mothers' understandings were how sensory preferences and past experiences of all members of the family had an impact on mealtime interactions. Initial evaluation suggests that wide-spread access to the SENSE-ational Mealtimes book could be an inexpensive approach to reduce the costs of adverse effects of mealtime difficulties on the emotional well-being of families and dietary intake of children. Mothers unanimously recommended the SENSE-ational Mealtimes book for both targeted prevention of and early intervention with mealtime difficulties in families.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T07:49:13Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-23681
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T07:49:13Z
publishDate 2013
publisher Routledge
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-236812017-09-13T15:59:26Z Development and Evaluation of SENSE-ational Mealtimes: a Book for Families with Mealtime Difficulties Stapleton, Denise Griffiths, G. Sherriff, Jillian picky/fussy eating intervention food refusal relationships feeding problems Many families with young children experience mealtime difficulties whereby the child eats a limited range of foods and/or refuses new food. Clinical interventions typically include behaviour training, enhancement of parenting skills and nutrition education. Clinical experience and a review of the literature across several domains suggested that interventions that optimise reflective functioning and understandings about sensory preferences at mealtimes are needed for both mild and complex mealtime difficulties. This study describes the development of the SENSE-ational Mealtimes book for families with mealtime difficulties and reports the findings of the initial evaluation. A questionnaire was used to assess the change in the frequency of difficult mealtimes, level of concern, understandings, feelings and goals of mothers 2 months after the book was distributed in a community setting. Mothers also provided feedback regarding helpfulness of the book, needs of families and recommendations. There was a statistically significant improvement in all aspects, namely frequency of mealtime difficulties, level of concern, understandings, feelings and goals. The subjective data indicated that the concepts instrumental in enhancing most mothers' understandings were how sensory preferences and past experiences of all members of the family had an impact on mealtime interactions. Initial evaluation suggests that wide-spread access to the SENSE-ational Mealtimes book could be an inexpensive approach to reduce the costs of adverse effects of mealtime difficulties on the emotional well-being of families and dietary intake of children. Mothers unanimously recommended the SENSE-ational Mealtimes book for both targeted prevention of and early intervention with mealtime difficulties in families. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/23681 10.1080/14635240.2013.834154 Routledge fulltext
spellingShingle picky/fussy eating
intervention
food refusal
relationships
feeding problems
Stapleton, Denise
Griffiths, G.
Sherriff, Jillian
Development and Evaluation of SENSE-ational Mealtimes: a Book for Families with Mealtime Difficulties
title Development and Evaluation of SENSE-ational Mealtimes: a Book for Families with Mealtime Difficulties
title_full Development and Evaluation of SENSE-ational Mealtimes: a Book for Families with Mealtime Difficulties
title_fullStr Development and Evaluation of SENSE-ational Mealtimes: a Book for Families with Mealtime Difficulties
title_full_unstemmed Development and Evaluation of SENSE-ational Mealtimes: a Book for Families with Mealtime Difficulties
title_short Development and Evaluation of SENSE-ational Mealtimes: a Book for Families with Mealtime Difficulties
title_sort development and evaluation of sense-ational mealtimes: a book for families with mealtime difficulties
topic picky/fussy eating
intervention
food refusal
relationships
feeding problems
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/23681