PICNIC - an online parent support program on young children's food and eating
PICNIC is a child feeding program from Australia. Together with parents and professionals, we are adapting PICNIC to fit families and child health services in Sweden. Would you like to take part? Sign up below to show your interest.
What is the project about?
The child feeding program PICNIC helps parents understand how children learn to eat, and offers practical tips for feeding and dealing with common mealtime challenges. The goal is to make everyday meals easier during the early childhood years—for both children and adults. It helps to reduce stress around meals and supports a positive relationship with food in the long term.
The research project "PICNIC in Swedish child health services"
PICNIC is not yet available in Sweden. After a pilot study, we now further develop this parent support program so it can be offered to families through child health services. PICNIC will include short online learning modules about children’s eating and responsive feeding, and digital parent groups led by child feeding experts. To make PICNIC as helpful as possible, we want to develop it together with parents and healthcare staff.
The aim of this project phase is to understand needs and perspectives of both parents and child health services—an important step to adapt PICNIC for Sweden. After that, the program will be evaluated in a large study within child health services in Western Sweden with the goal of reaching more families in the future.
Would you like to help us shape PICNIC for families in Sweden?
We are looking for people who would like to join a reference group and take part in one or more meetings—either individually or in a group. This research is not about evaluating you as a parent. Instead, we want your feedback on what we are creating in PICNIC. We are looking for up to 30 fathers, mothers and other caregivers of preschool‑aged children (from 12 months to 5 years) to participate.
Interested in participating?
Submit an Expression of Interest here, and the researchers will contact you. You can ask questions before you decide whether you want to take part.
[Link to expression-of-interest in RedCap]
Mothers, fathers, and other caregivers of preschool‑aged children are welcome—including people with different backgrounds, levels of knowledge, and interests. No previous experience with research is needed.
To take part, you need to:
- be a parent or caregiver of one or more children aged 12 months to 5 years;
- be at least 18 years old;
- live in Sweden;
- understand English and/or Swedish, both spoken and written.
We will hold separate meetings for Swedish- and English-speaking participants.
If you choose to take part, you can join group discussions with other parents or meet individually with the researchers to:
- Discuss and suggest what content about children’s food and eating should be included in PICNIC
- Test parts of the PICNIC programme and suggest improvements
- If you wish, provide feedback on questionnaires for the next phase of the project
Each activity take 1-3 hours and you can take part in-person or online. You participate in maximum four activities.
As a thank you for your participation, you will receive a gift card worth 200 SEK for each activity you take part in.
Are you a healthcare professional?
We are also looking for child health nurses, dietitians, psychologists, speech therapists, and doctors who work with families with young children. These will form a separate reference group.
Read more on our Swedish PICNIC webpage.
Who leads the project?
Maria Henström Engblom
Project lead, nutritionist, and researcher at Karolinska Institutet (KI)
Maria Briggert Bengtsson,
Registered dietitian at Central Child Health Services (CBHV) in Västra Götaland Region, and PhD student at KI
This project is a collaboration between Karolinska Institutet (KI), Central Child Health Services (CBHV) in Västra Götaland Region (VGR), the Health Promotion Unit at Mid North Coast Local Health District (MNCLHD) in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, and the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
The PICNIC team in Australia is led by Richard Ball and include, among others, Rachel Gerathy and Kerith Duncanson.
The research project “PICNIC in Swedish Child Health Services” (PICNIC Sweden) is funded by a research grant from Forte.
Want to contact us? Email us at picnic@ki.se
Full study information for participating parents (soon in English)
Maria Henström Engblom
Project lead for “PICNIC in Swedish Child Health Services”; nutritionist and researcher (assistant professor)More about PICNIC
The PICNIC ("Parent in Child Nutrition Informing Community") parent support program was originally developed in Australia. It aims to strengthen parents in their role around mealtimes with young children, with a focus on how parents can support eating, rather than what to eat.
PICNIC provides easy‑to‑understand, evidence‑based information and support online. It also includes peer support, where parents can learn from other parents’ experiences and ask questions. Answers are given by dietitians and other professionals who work with children’s eating.
The program has been developed over several years by dietitians and researchers, together with parents. PICNIC is now reaching new areas of Australia and parts of Asia. A pilot study has been carried out in Sweden, and the next step is to adapt and further develop PICNIC for parents and child health services in Sweden before testing it on a larger scale.
PICNIC is for all families, whether you are just starting to introduce food or have already come some way. It does not matter if your child enjoys food or is a 'picky eater'. The information is evidence‑based and in line with advice from child health services and the Swedish Food Agency. PICNIC does not replace care at child health service centres (BVC) but can offer extra support around food and eating (need-based support). It is not a treatment program; if your child has a medical condition that affects feeding or nutrition, always talk to your child’s healthcare provider.