Prevention of Childhood Obesity

Inclusion Criteria:

For study 1, 60 families (120 parents) with a child between the age of 2-4 years will be
entered to the study. Children of these families will be at risk for overweight because the
family will contain at least one obese parent. For study 2, 100 families (200 parents) will
be entered to the study. Children of these families will be at risk for overweight and have
a reactive temperament. The reason for using this population is that a combination of
parental obesity and a child with a reactive temperament appears to put the child at high
risk for the development of overweight.

Exclusion Criteria:Parental exclusions:

   1. Not able to comprehend English well enough to participate in assessments or the
   intervention.

   2. Serious non-obesity related physical illness, (e.g., cancer), which would preclude
   participation in assessment or intervention.

   3. Serious current psychiatric disorder, e.g. schizophrenia, uncontrolled bipolar
   disorder, mental retardation that would preclude participation in assessment or
   intervention.

   4. Single parents

Child exclusions:

   1. Serious physical illness or related treatments that would affect feeding or weight
   including history of feeding aversion, failure to thrive, and use of nasogastric or
   gastrostomy feeding.

   2. Prematurity below 37-weeks associated with prolonged hospitalization, ongoing need for
   nutritional supplementation, or naso-gastric feeding.(parental report)

   3. Serious current developmental problems including any that might interfere with
   self-feeding or require additional parental feeding support e.g. developmental delay,
   autism. (parental report).