Mealtimes in child-care centers

Nutrition Research Newsletter, March, 2008

Millions of children spend time under the care of someone other than their parents, with 57% of children aged 3 to 5 years attending center-based care. While parents influence children's health and development, child-care staff also play an important role. Mealtimes should provide nutritious food and a supportive environment for young children to develop appropriate eating skills and to learn what to eat.

Many professional groups and government agencies provide structure to feeding within child-care settings. However, little documentation exists about what center mealtimes actually look like, or about mealtime policies, including monitoring and training staff. Without such information, it can be difficult to plain training, develop interventions, and determine how guidelines impact young children's eating skills and habits. Therefore, a recent study described mealtimes and explored routines, policies, and training in child-care centers.

Five hundred and seventy-four child-care centers from California, Colorado, Idaho, and Nevada serving children 18 to 60 months of age were included in this study. The directors from these centers were surveyed.

Mealtimes generally occurred in the classroom, where an adult sat at the table with the children, served some food, poured the drinks, and ate some of the center-provided food. Less than half of centers reported using "family-style" service, although this style allows children the opportunity to self-serve food, while 8% used preplated and 31% in lunch box style. Staff received substantially less training on feeding children (42%) than on nutrition (68%) and child development (95%). Registered dietitians must be cognizant of local mealtime policies as well as licensing requirements prior to conducting training of child-care staff. In this study, center administrators (82%) determined and enforced mealtime policies to ensure compliance. When directors observed mealtimes, 83% reported examining interactions between children, and between children and staff, whereas 52% reported monitoring for staff-training needs and 53% for how to improve mealtimes. Professional staff development directly relates to quality child care and to positive caregiver behavior. In this study, training policies differed by state, with Nevada and Colorado requiring yearly child-care training (15 and 9 hours, respectively) and Idaho a minimum of four hours of training. Training specific to feeding children was not required in any of the four states, which may explain why staff placed significantly less importance on strategies for children learning to self-serve than on socialization at mealtimes.

The findings of this study can help broaden the scope of understanding of mealtime practices in child care by food and nutrition professionals as well as by center administration. These findings bring focus to the need to educate child-care staff and directors about the impact of mealtime environments on child health and development.

Madeline Sigman-Grant, Elizabeth Christiansen, Laurel Branen, et al. About Feeding Children: Mealtimes in Child-Care Centers in Four Western States. JADA; 108:340-346 (February 2008) [Correspondence: Madeline Sigman-Grant, PhD, RD, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, 8050 South Maryland Pkwy, Las Vegas, NV 89123. E-mail: sigman-grantm@unce.unr.edu]