The need for a more inclusive definition of 'childcare' in efforts aimed at improving the dietary quality of young children

Authors: WOOD, ALEXIS - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)

Submitted to: Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/30/2023
Publication Date: 4/4/2023
Citation: Wood, A.C. 2023. The need for a more inclusive definition of 'childcare' in efforts aimed at improving the dietary quality of young children. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2023.03.020.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2023.03.020

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: More than three-fourths of US children under the age of 5 attend out-of-home childcare, and multiple foundations, including the The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, note the importance of childcare settings to overall child dietary quality. Accordingly, numerous efforts at improving the healthfulness of foods served in childcare have been undertaken both at both a local level, and via state/federal policy. However, almost all these efforts have been aimed at childcare centers, despite the fact that in 2019, 6.4 million US children under the age of five attended childcare in a different setting, such as another family's home. A recent publication undertook one of the first investigations of diet quality at family childcare homes, and found that the food served in this setting was less healthful than the food served in children's own homes. The purpose of this manuscript was to highlight the importance of this novel finding, by arguing that the sociodemographic correlates of children who attend a daycare center vs. receive childcare in another family's home mean that excluding this latter setting in efforts to improve child dietary quality could increase the sociodemographic-based disparities in diet-related conditions, that track from early childhood across the lifespan.