# “The big win was that we actually cooked”– a qualitative interview study about the parental experience of Family Meals on Prescription for children living with obesity

## TL;DR

Parents found a weekly prepacked grocery bag program helpful in reducing stress and improving family meal habits for children with obesity.

## Contribution

This study provides novel insights into how prepacked grocery bags can support positive mealtime behaviors in families dealing with childhood obesity.

## Key findings

- The intervention reduced stress and supported meal planning for parents.
- Families reported increased knowledge about food and more regular, varied meals.
- Some parents found portion sizes too large, making it hard to maintain boundaries.

## Abstract

The aim was to evaluate the parental experiences of participating in the randomized controlled trial “Family Meals on Prescription” for childhood obesity. The intervention consisted of a weekly prepacked grocery bag with recipes to cover five evening meals for the whole family.

Parental, semi-structed interviews were performed with at least one parent of the participating families. Inclusion criteria was that the family had actively participated in the intervention. The interview questions were formulated to explore the experiences, opinions and attitudes of the parents regarding the intervention. The interviews were transcribed and thematically analysed using both an inductive and deductive approach.

Parents (six mothers and five fathers) from ten families were interviewed. The thematic analysis identified that the intervention reduced stress and was supportive regarding meal planning. The parents described an increased knowledge concerning food and cooking in the whole family and changes in meal behaviours such as more regular meals, trying new food and consuming more vegetables. Negative experience concerning the portion size being too large making it hard to maintain boundaries were also highlighted.

Parents described that the intervention with a subsidized prepacked grocery bag supported them in adapting more positive behaviours related to family meals through decreased stress levels and including the children in the daily cooking in an encouraging way. This method has the potential to help this group by directly engaging the whole families in new behaviours and enhancing family cohesion.

Registered at clinicaltrals.gov 27 Nov 2020, retrospectively registered: clinicaltrials.gov number 19,002,468. https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05225350.

Regular family meals and mealtime routines has been shown to be important for nutritional health and dietary patterns in children and adolescents. Intensive dietary intervention with a participatory approach in the home setting may be a novel tool in the treatment of childhood obesity.

This study describes the parental experience of taking part of an intensive dietary intervention consisting of receiving prepacked grocery bags with the purpose to promote family meals. The parents described that the intervention led to more positive behaviours related to family meals.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41043-025-00921-3.