Communication With Family Child Care Providers and Feeding Preschool-Aged Children: Parental Perspectives

Abstract

Objective: To describe parent communication about child nutrition-related topics with family child care providers (FCCPs). Design: Five focus groups conducted December 2016-July 2017. Participants: Parents (n=25) of 2-to-5-year-old children attending Family Child Care Homes (FCCH) in Rhode Island. Phenomenon of interest: How and what parents communicate about with FCCPs related to feeding young children. Analysis: Recordings were transcribed verbatim. Content analysis was used to analyze transcripts by two independent coders. Reflections, emerging themes, and final themes were discussed. Microsoft NVivo 11 ® was used for data management. Results: Participants were recruited via FCCPs, and mostly Hispanic and female. Parents mainly communicated with FCCPs in-person. Communication with FCCPs related to how and what children were fed did not occur frequently, and parents usually inquired about how much children ate. Conclusions and Implications: Parents did not engage in frequent child nutrition-related communication with their FCCP. However, parents trusted FCCPs to provide healthy and sufficient food to children. More research is needed to identify effective strategies that facilitate child nutrition communication between parents and FCCPs

A qualitative comparison of parent and childcare provider perceptions of communication and family engagement in children's healthy eating and physical activity

“…In regard to methods of communication, similar to other research providers and parents reported using various methods (Barnes et al, 2016;Mena et al, 2020). However, in this study, a third of childcare providers reported using daily sheets but fewer parents mentioned this type of communication.…”

“…On the contrary, childcare providers report barriers in communicating with parents such as lack of face‐to‐face time with parents, parents prioritizing talking about food issues (e.g. food allergies) instead of nutrition in general, lack of training on communicating without conflict, and a lack of information retention from parents (Dev et al, 2017; Johnson et al, 2013; Mena et al, 2020). Ultimately, results suggest both parents and providers believe that communication with each other is important but often limited (Mena et al, 2020).…”

Ethnic Differences in Family Childcare Providers’ Nutrition- and Activity-Related Attitudes and Barriers

“…In previous research, FCCPs recognized the child's home environment as an important influence on children's PA and ST behaviors that can make it difficult for FCCP to engage the child in healthful activities [ 78 , 79 ]. In the current study, many FCCPs agreed that parents do not want their children to go outside when it is cold or raining, which is consistent with qualitative research findings [ 8 , 35 ].…”

“…Specifically, further education about appropriate beverages, screen time, feeding practices related to children's self-regulation, and communicating with parents about PA could be considered for FCCPs. Professional development offering opportunities to enhance knowledge of best practices in child nutrition, PA, and ST, as well as effective parental communication strategies to ensure consistent messages, may improve practices both in FCCHs and home environments [ 78 ].…”

A multi-component tailored intervention in family childcare homes improves diet quality and sedentary behavior of preschool children compared to an attention control: results from the Healthy Start-Comienzos Sanos cluster randomized trial

“…Given the shared responsibility between parents and childcare providers for children’s health, shared communication regarding promotion of healthy eating and activity may be beneficial in supporting consistent health-related messages for young children [ 128 ]. However, communication between parents and FCCP related to preschool-aged children’s health-related behaviors remains limited [ 67 ]. Healthy Start baseline data found that over half of FCCP reported that they provided families with information about appropriate screen time behaviors for children [ 129 ], but less than 40% said that they provided families with information on PA or nutrition [ 65 , 129 ].…”