Challenge
With one in four children overweight when starting primary school, tackling childhood obesity is one of the greatest long-term health challenges facing the UK.
Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, in collaboration with Kent County Council, recently launched a campaign to highlight the link between overfeeding bottle-fed babies and the onset of childhood obesity.
The trust hopes that by raising awareness of this and providing education to health professionals they can reverse this trend and to support parents and caregivers effectively.
To do this, they turned to us for help.
Solution
We crafted three compelling animations, packed full of information to equip health professionals - ranging from health visitors, midwives and GP nurses to nursery staff and playgroup leaders - with the tools and knowledge they need to increase their confidence in speaking to families about responsive bottle-feeding and responsive feeding:
- Animation 1: What is responsive bottle-feeding and why is it important?
- Animation 2: Responsive bottle-feeding is responding to a baby's hunger and fullness cues
- Animation 3: Responsive feeding (after 6 months)
The animations needed to be specific to Kent and its unique local challenges, striking the balance between ‘educational but not preachy’, for a subject matter that can be sensitive.
"We needed a quick and engaging way for them to take the information on board and absorb it quickly. Animation was the ideal solution."
Jo Treharne, Head of Campaigns and Digital, Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust
Jo Treharne, Head of Campaigns and Digital at Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, says: “The professionals we are trying to reach are pressed for time - they aren’t going to read a load of text on a notice board or in a leaflet. We needed a quick and engaging way for them to take the information on board and absorb it quickly.
“Animation was the ideal solution, it enabled us to shape the narrative, control visual elements, and get the messages across effectively in the most clear and simple way."
"There are ways of getting things across in animation that you just wouldn't be able to do with a leaflet or a PowerPoint!”
Jo adds, “Scriberia came up with a really lovely concept, using coats hanging on pegs in the classroom to illustrate the issue. When the children start school, there’s one coat that’s a bit bigger and then when they leave school that goes to two. There are ways of getting things across in animation that you just wouldn't be able to do with a leaflet or a PowerPoint!”
Results
The animations were shared with health professionals across the county’s primary care settings, children’s centres, and GP practices, as well as featured on the Kent Family Professional Resources Hub.
And the impact has been impressive: before the campaign, 37% of health professionals said they felt extremely or very confident in discussing responsive bottle-feeding with families - this rose to 72% after viewing the animations. And for health visitors in particular this rose from 70% to 97%.
"The results really show how much these animations have been vital in increasing the confidence of health professionals in raising the subject of responsive bottle-feeding. A big thank you to Scriberia for their creative and professional approach."
“Interestingly, the biggest change is with early years professionals that work in nursery settings, showing the effectiveness of the animations with non-medical professionals,” adds Jo. “Overall the results really show how much these animations have been vital in increasing the confidence of health professionals in raising the subject of responsive bottle-feeding.
“A big thank you to Scriberia for their creative and professional approach to helping us to address a sensitive subject.”
