Using the Internet to impact parent-child feeding behaviors

The Internet has increasingly become a viable option for providing nutrition education as part of the WIC process. Seven states have adopted the use of wichealth.org for the purposes of providing secondary education contact to over 150,000 WIC participants. Evaluation results over the past 5 years have consistently found wichealth.org users to have easy access to Internet-based learning and wichealth.org to be perceived as highly helpful and easy to use, a method for increasing belief in ability to engage in healthy parent-child feeding behaviors, and a preferred method for receiving nutrition education as compared to other opportunities offered within local WIC clinics. The Internet can be used for more than just initial intent to change, but rather also serve as a resource for continued behavioral counseling. This session will not only provide an overview of impact of the wichealth.org Internet-based nutrition education program, but also provide insight into the WIC Resource Matrix, a current initiative being designed to provide WIC nutrition counselors with added ability to provide stage-specific resources during counseling as a means of continuing to assist clients progress along the readiness to change continuum. The potential impact is a long-term staged-based change system, increasing the likelihood of successful parent-child feeding behavior change.