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Understanding of expert recommendations
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| Misperceptions about non-recommended products |
I didn’t even know Vitamin Water was [a sugary drink]—I mean, I know, obviously, it had sugar in it, but I didn’t know it was unhealthy for you. (WIC group) I think the Juicy Juice has natural sugars. So that’s supposed to be OK, I think. I don’t know that for a fact. (WIC group)
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And I’m like-- and I thought granola bars were healthy, too. I don’t give them the chocolate chip ones. I give them the fruit-- with the fruit inside, the soft ones. (WIC group) I always thought goldfish was healthy because they serve it at the play group. (WIC group) The school gives me a bunch of the little graham crackers. So I thought they were [healthy]. (WIC group)
I felt like it’s much healthier if I get her a baby cookie versus a chocolate chip cookie from Chips Ahoy. So I just think that they generate healthier stuff for babies, because that’s what the pediatricians want them to do. So yeah, I do. I try to give her baby stuff.
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| Questioning recommendations |
With my 1-year-old, the pediatrician was like, he doesn’t need anything more than 8 ounces of milk a day. And at the WIC office was like, no. You still need at least 16 ounces of milk.
Almond milk it is healthier, they say. So why-- --should give a kid --that kind of milk [i.e., cow’s milk]? (WIC group) But, I mean, how can you only give them 4 ounces of juice? I feel like it’s a little bit of torture. They just look at me like, are you serious? And they get so like-- and when I give them water -- I’ve forced them to drink water. (WIC group)
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Children’s unhealthy food preferences
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| Innate preferences |
When she’s eating a meal, she’ll drink water. But if you just give her water, she’s not going to drink the water. I put water in her sippy cup, and she threw it at me. I put juice in there and she drank it.
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So when you say lots of different fruit and vegetables, that doesn’t work for my son. He likes only 1 fruit-- banana.
So for her, she loves fruit. Bananas, strawberries, pineapples, anything. But when it comes to vegetables, she won’t do it. She rather run up to those Froot Loops, the puff Cheetos, and then she’ll walk over to the snack cabinet... She knows where the snacks are. All her favorites.
I’ll try to give it to him [vegetables], and then he won’t eat it, and then I end up throwing it out…It’s hard to keep trying because I don’t want to waste things. (WIC group)
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| Modeling |
My older daughter, she drinks soda. So sometimes when she’s seen the older one, she would say, I want it, I want it. I say, no. And she starts crying.
That’s not an issue with my granddaughter. She will drink the milk and the water and not ask for sugary [i.e., sugary drinks] because there’s no older kids in the household that she sees drinking them or asking for them. I personally drink the Vitamin Water…So they see me. I can’t help it. They want to do what I do. (WIC group)
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With my youngest daughter, my challenge is trying not to introduce candies or sweets because my older daughter [12-year-old] is sometimes drinking soda or eating candies. So the little one is trying to eat the same.
He [my 5-year-old] will go hungry all day if you do not give him what he wants. And rather than him going all day hungry, I’ll give in and be like, OK. You can have nuggets. You can have fries. But then the 1-year-old sees him eating it and he won’t want to eat his fruits and veggies any more, he wants nuggets and fries.
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| Others serving non-recommended products |
Well, it’s kind of realistic [i.e., drink recommendations]. You don’t have to buy it, but they’re probably going to get it somewhere. Nana goes, here, just have a Sprite or something. And it’s annoying, but I’m just like, I’m not driving myself crazy running around after to see what you’re doing, see what you’re drinking, or whatever. And I tell her, but they don’t care. They support it sometimes, but not all the time. (WIC group) But people are willing to give you free sugar-loaded things [drinks] for your kids all the time. And sometimes I feel like the bad person that I’m blocking everything. No, no, no. She can’t have that, she can’t have that. Just to try to get her to eat better and not to introduce those foods to her.
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Before, he loved his veggies and his fruits. But then I think when he goes to Nana’s house and with dad and he gets to eat that junk food, that’s all he wants to eat now, is junk.
I think the most difficult thing is other people feeding a child whatever they brought, or things like that. Like, you know, you’re home. They’re comfortable. You can lay down the rules. But when they’re in somebody else’s care, sometimes everything goes out the window that day.
Whatever they want-- He gives them it. Going behind my back. You’re with daddy now, so you can get whatever you want.
The challenges I do have with her eating is that...when she’s with me, she eats extremely well. However, when she’s being introduced to all these things, whether in daycare, or in camp, or with family…she seems to favor those foods, opposed to the more whole foods.
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Practical considerations
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| Cost |
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I give my kids a lot of fruit, though…I mean, and there’s only so much of it. Once it’s done, I’m like, OK, you guys have these snacks now. Because trying to eat healthy and fresh is really expensive. It’s really expensive… I can’t afford it all the time.
If I want to buy all these veggies and fruits, that comes up to like $60. And I can only go $200 a week on groceries. [Describing SNAP benefits] I still have to get my meats, I still have to get my dairy and my greens, everything. (WIC group)
And if you do run into Stop and Shop to pick up a little vegetable pre-packaged with the hummus, that’ll cost you $3, $4, $5. Yeah. It’s ridiculous. And you can get a thing of pretzels for 99 cents.
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| Convenience/availability |
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I always keep cereal in the car… I rarely will have fruit in there because this I can keep in my bag forever.
Those I do buy [packaged snacks] when we are outside, in the moment…But when they are in my house, what they eat is fruits and vegetables.
When you’re out and you forget to pack your snack, to pick up something quickly, the junk food is more-- it’s more available-- --than the fruit, than the vegetable.
So, it’s hard to go in the grocery and buy healthy stuff. You never know what to buy. Like, fruity snack, it’s like, oh, it’s fruit. But I know it’s not-- even graham crackers.
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