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Early Childhood Dietary Assessment Study

Enhancing the Accuracy of Self-Reported Dietary Intake in Young Children: Development of Two Proxy Reporting Protocols for Self-Reported Dietary Assessment

Who can join

Ages 2 to 5 · All sexes · Healthy volunteers welcome

Inclusion Criteria:

* Adult caregiver ≥ 18 years old
* Absence of food allergies or dietary restrictions for medical reasons (for the child)
* Caregiver reports child likes at least 70% of the study-provided foods from the pre-defined list of food options
* Caregiver has access to a smartphone device compatible with the EMA platform
* Caregiver can identify a second adult caregiver with access to a smartphone device compatible with the EMA platform and willing to provide the child with study-provided foods for at least two eating occasions.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Caregiver unwilling to feed study-provided foods to their child
* Caregiver unwilling to take pre-and-post photos of child's eating occasions
* Caregiver unwilling or unable to identify a second adult caregiver meeting the eligibility criteria
* Caregiver and child reside in a separate household for \> 2 days per week
* Family resides \>25 miles outside of the Knoxville, Tennessee, metropolitan area.

About the study

The goal of this crossover randomized controlled trial is to develop a proxy reporting protocol for a traditional 24-hour dietary recall (24HR) and an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) assisted 24-HR for use among children between the ages of 2 and 5 years. The main aims are to:

1. Assess the usability and feasibility of each proxy-reporting protocol and dietary assessment methodology. 2. Describe the dietary misreporting captured using each proxy-reporting protocol, and 3. Explore the accuracy of energy intake estimation of the 24HR and EMA+24HR methods, compared to objectively measured food intake.

During the research study, participants will:

1. Be provided with one meal and two snacks each day to provide to their child on three consecutive days. Foods can be offered to their child at times of their choosing, and leftovers will be placed back into reusable food storage containers to be picked up by research study staff. Uneaten foods will be weighed for an objective measure of intake. 2. The day after study-provided foods are given to the child, the adult caregiver will complete a proxy-reported 24HR phone call with a trained research assistant. 3. In the EMA+24HR condition, caregivers will be provided access to an online platform where they will upload pre- and post-photographs of all of their child's eating occasions across the three days that study-provided foods are eaten.

What is being tested

• Ecological Momentary Assessment (other)
• Traditional 24-hour dietary recall (other)

Sponsor: The University of Tennessee, Knoxville · Participants: 40 · Started: Jul 15, 2025

Contact the study team

• Emilie Holloway, MS, RDN · Phone: 865-974-5894
• Hollie Raynor, PhD, RD, LDN · Phone: 865-974-9126

Official record on ClinicalTrials.gov — NCT07227272

Locations in the U.S.

From ClinicalTrials.gov, data retrieved Sep 30, 2026. Each study sets its own eligibility; the study team decides who can join.