Browsing by Subject "family centeredness"

Maternity and child health clinics have a central role in preventing childhood obesity and providing the entire family with lifestyle counselling. The Pilot Intervention Study on Diet of Toddlers in Finland aims at evaluating the feasibility of a nutrition intervention in child health clinics. The Resourceful Family counselling method developed by the Finnish Heart Association is a family-centred and empowerment-based method employed in child health clinics that are part of the nutrition intervention group in the Pilot Intervention Study on Diet of Toddlers in Finland. The aim of this thesis was to describe the discussions about lifestyle issues in child health clinic. Another aim was to evaluate the translation of the principles and objectives of the Resourceful Family method into practice. Ten child’s one-year visits to child health clinic recorded in the Pilot Intervention Study on Diet of Toddlers in Finland were analyzed in this study. The check-up visits had been recorded in three child health clinics where the nutrition intervention was carried out. The research method was content analysis. The most frequent themes in discussions about lifestyle during the child’s one-year visit to child health clinic were: adjusting of the child to the family diet, milk or milk products in the child’s diet and vitamin D supplementation of the child (discussed during 8/10 child health clinic appointments). Salt in food preparation was also a common theme (6/10). In nearly all of the appointments (9/10) one or more theme related to the lifestyle of parents and/or the entire family was discussed. The nurse mostly controlled the counselling situation by bringing up new topics. The nurses invited families to participate in the discussions in more than half of the appointments in accordance with a specific guidance practice part of the Resourceful Family counselling method. The nurses linked the invitation to the Resourceful Family card. They provided families with information in a neutral manner. Some of the information provided was client-centred. Discussions related to changing habits were evident in more than half of the appointments. These discussions did not lead to setting specific goals or creating plans due to the lack of guidance practices aimed at helping the family proceed in the change process. Family-centred and resource-based lifestyle counselling should be developed especially regarding motivating the family and supporting the family members in the change process. Thus the importance of these two areas of counselling should be emphasized in the education of nurses.