Healthy Eating for My Infant: A Community- Informed Infant Obesity Prevention Program Addressing the Impact of Maternal Mental Health on Eating and Feeding

Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Phase II Efficacy Testing of a Community-Informed Infant Obesity Prevention Program Addressing the Impact of Maternal Mental Health on Eating and Feeding.

Infants from low-income families are at increased risk for obesity, but obesity prevention programs tailored specifically to the needs of these infants are lacking. Our team developed Healthy Eating for My Infant (HEMI) to address the specific obesity risk factors, barriers to health behaviors, and needs articulated by community members and low-income families (e.g., maternal mental health, realistic feeding options within the context of food insecurity). The current study will examine the feasibility and acceptability of HEMI delivered via home visiting, as well as preliminary efficacy for improving infant growth trajectories, diet, and parenting/feeding factors related to future obesity risk among infants from low-income families.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Obesity & Overweight
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Healthy Eating for My Infant (HEMI)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 60
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Cathy Stough, PhD; Phone Number: 15135565589; Email: odarcc@ucmail.uc.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Ohio
    • Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, 45220
      • University of Cincinnati
      • Contact: Cathy Stough, PhD; Phone Number: 513-556-5589; Email: odarcc@ucmail.uc.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria

• Child age 2 months 0 days to 2 months 30 days at baseline.
• Child is a singleton.
• Mom's must be fluent in English or Spanish.
• Mom must be 18 years or older.

Exclusion Criteria

• Child has major congenital abnormalities or medical conditions requiring specialized feeding.
• Family is currently enrolled in home grocery delivery.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control; Participants randomized into this arm will not receive the study intervention. They will continue to receive standard home visiting services through Every Child Succeeds.
Experimental: Intervention; Participants randomized into this arm will receive the Healthy Eating for My Infant Intervention (HEMI).	Behavioral: Healthy Eating for My Infant (HEMI); Our team developed an obesity prevention program, Healthy Eating for My Infant (HEMI), to address the unique factors influencing obesity risk and health behaviors among low-income families and their infants and to be delivered in conjunction with an existing evidence-based home visiting program. HEMI targets healthy feeding with children 3-14 months old through twice monthly behavioral and educational sessions alongside sessions with a peer counselor with similar lived experience to mothers in the program. HEMI incorporates education and evidence-based behavioral techniques (e.g., problem solving, goal setting, behavioral rehearsal) to address topics such as infant nutrition, introduction of solid foods, responsive feeding, realistic healthy eating options, healthy eating on a budget, and recipes). All sessions are delivered in the families' homes. The intervention also includes free grocery delivery and supplemental funds for purchasing foods through grocery delivery.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Participant Retention	Participant retention is defined as the percentage of participants that complete each study visit. The percentage of participants completing the post-treatment measurement visit and the 6-month follow-up visit will be calculated, and separate percentages will be calculated for each arm of the study (i.e., control, intervention). This will be measured by tracking yes or no for whether each study visit is completed for each participant.	Immediately after the intervention (post-treatment study visit), 6 months after completion of the post-treatment study visit (6 month follow-up visit)
Treatment Session Completion	The percentage of treatment sessions completed within the designated completion windows will be monitored.	Between child age 3 months-14 months (the time period during which the intervention condition is receiving the program).
Treatment Acceptability	Families, peer counselors, and health behavior coaches delivering the program will evaluate program acceptability, utilizing the theoretical framework of acceptability. Families will complete an established questionnaire assessing components of the TFA: affective attitude and effectiveness, coherence and understanding, and perceived burden. The established questionnaire will also be modified to be completed by peer counselors and health behavior coaches to report their perception of acceptability of the program for families. Qualitative interviews will also be conducted with families, peer counselors, and health behavior coaches to identify any modifications to the HEMI program to improve acceptability.	Between child age 3 months-14 months (the time period during which the intervention condition is receiving the program), Immediately after the intervention (post-treatment study visit)
Body Mass Index	Anthropometrics will be measured in triplicate using a calibrated mobile digital SECA baby scale and portable infant length board. Infants will be weighed in a clean diaper without clothes to the nearest 1 gram. The length board has a stable headboard and a moveable foot piece and will be placed on a flat, hard surface. All length measurements will be performed by two team members, with one holding the infant's head straight and flush against the headboard, while the other places one hand across the knees to fully straighten and extend the legs so that heels are at a 90-degree angle against the foot piece and reads the measurement. If holding both legs is not possible, the measurement can be taken with only the right leg extended.	Between child ages 3-14 months (when the intervention condition is receiving the program), Immediately after the intervention (post-treatment study visit), 6 months after completion of the post-treatment study visit (6 month follow-up visit).
Diet Variety	Child diet will be assessed via three 24-hour dietary recall interviews conducted with mothers by phone. Trained interviewers, blinded to participant study condition, will employ the USDA automated multiple-pass method, a standardized interview approach demonstrated to improve accuracy of dietary intake data. Data from dietary recalls will be used to calculate diet variety using the minimum dietary diversity (MDD) approach.	Immediately after the intervention (post-treatment study visit), 6 months after completion of the post-treatment study visit (6 month follow-up visit).
Diet Quality	Child diet will be assessed via three 24-hour dietary recall interviews conducted with mothers by phone. Trained interviewers, blinded to participant study condition, will employ the USDA automated multiple-pass method, a standardized interview approach demonstrated to improve accuracy of dietary intake data. The Nutrition Data Systems for Research (NDSR; Nutrition Coordinating Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN) software and foods database will be used to assess total daily energy and macronutrient intake as well as food group servings consumed. Data from dietary recalls will be used to calculate diet quality using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI-Toddlers-2020) for children under age 2 years.	Immediately after the intervention (post-treatment study visit), 6 months after completion of the post-treatment study visit (6 month follow-up visit).
Food Security	Food security will be reported using the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module: Short Form.	Baseline, immediately after the intervention (post-treatment study visit), 6 months after completion of the post-treatment study visit (6 month follow-up visit).

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Cincinnati
• Collaborators: Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati; Every Child Succeeds

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): January 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): April 1, 2028
• Study Completion (Estimated): April 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 26, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 12, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): December 16, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 16, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 12, 2025
• Last Verified: December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Nutrition Disorders; Overnutrition; Body Weight; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases; Signs and Symptoms; Overweight; Obesity; Diet, Food, and Nutrition; Physiological Phenomena; Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Diet; Diet, Healthy
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1R01DK142998-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: In this proposed project, the raw participant-level data will be shared, along with derived metrics and transformations from initial raw data, with the exception of dietary intake data which will be available after processing by NDSR for nutrient and food servings information. Data will be made available in .csv format or other open file formats and will not require the use of specialized tools to be accessed or manipulated. In accordance with FAIR Principles for data, we will use open file formats (e.g., JPEG, MP4, CSV, TXT, PDF, HTML, etc.) and persistent unique identifiers (PIDs).
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Scientific data will be shared as soon as possible. Scientific data included in published manuscripts will be available at the time of publication; all other generated scientific data will be shared no later than the end of the award. The study data will be stored in the repository for at least 5 years.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: All datasets and other information that can be shared will be deposited in UCFigshare, a University of Cincinnati (UC) data repository for NIH-sponsored research at UC. UCFigshare is a platform for accessible and interoperable data sharing and available publicly at https://uc.figshare.com/. Data and other information can be uploaded by NIH-sponsored UC researchers to promote sharing of scientific data in compliance with NIH policy for data management and sharing. UCFigshare provides a data sharing platform consistent with the FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability) data principles and is provided via a partnership between the UC Office of Research, UC Libraries, and DTS.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No