Healthy eating in the early years

Abstract

19 Purpose 20A nutritious diet is critical to the health and development of pre-school children. Children in 21 the UK consume much food outside the home yet day-care food provision is unregulated, and 22 informed by disparate and conflicting dietary guidelines. Factors affecting nursery food 23 provision have been much studied, but less is known about food provision in the child-minder 24 setting. This study examined factors influencing child-minders' food provision. 25 26 Design/methods 27Qualitative methods were employed, combining participant observation with semi-structured 28 interviews. Participants were selected via purposive and convenience sampling. Eight child-29 minders from a large town in Yorkshire, England were interviewed. 30 31 32 Findings 33The food provided by child-minders was not consistent with dietary guidelines for young 34 children, following menu plans was reported to be difficult, and knowledge about healthy 35 eating guidelines for young children was various. Child-minders reported limited time for 36 food preparation, and problems catering for fussy children. Some child-minders obtained 37 support through an informal peer network group. Only one child-minder reported availing of 38 professional nutritional advice on healthy food provision. Communication with parents about 39 food was considered important, although there was some evidence of discord between 40 providers and parents in dietary objectives. 41The study was small in size and regionally based. Due to the local nature of the study, it 42is not possible to make generalisations to the wider national context 43 Practical Implications 44Child-minders have a pivotal role to play in the nutritional health and development of young 45 children, and whilst their interest in provision of nutritious food was great, outside support 46 was lacking. Support should include provision of one clear set of authoritative guidelines, 47 practical guidance that accommodates the realities of providing food in the child-minder 48 setting, investment to strengthen support structures at local level and the development of 49 network groups. 50 51 3

A Study of the Food Environment at Australian Family Day Care

“…Family day care (FDC) is a unique type of ECEC service, and although not as well-utilised as centre-based services, it is offered globally among high-income countries such as the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and European countries, such as Finland [5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. In Australia, family day care educators operate from their own homes to provide education and care for small groups of children aged 0–12 years, favoured by parents working irregular hours [7], who consider it a more convenient service [9].…”

“…FDC educators must be registered with a FDC ‘provider’, responsible for supporting, training and advising individual FDC educators [7]. More than 182,000 Australian children attend FDC for on average 30 hours/week [12], meaning this a setting where children can develop positive lifelong food habits [13] and be taught food literacy skills [14], influencing their future health and wellbeing [6]. However, research indicates healthy eating at FDC is often overlooked.…”

“…However, research indicates healthy eating at FDC is often overlooked. For example, qualitative studies of FDC educators have found that food provision was not compliant with dietary guidelines, and that educators were role-modelling negative food behaviours and reported difficulties managing ‘fussy’ eaters [6,8]. Moreover, a lack of nutrition education training, inaccurate nutrition-related beliefs and perceptions, and poor child feeding practices were also present [5].…”

The Attractive Power of Rural Destinations and a Synergistic Community Cooperative Approach: A “Tourismability” Case

“…For some years, with the emergence of agritourism, rural tourism, industrial scandals related to food [9,[63][64][65][66][67], and the depletion of tradition in the rapid and frenetic life of big cities [68], there has been a gradual convergence of the two sectors (agriculture and tourism), evident above all in some national and regional strategies for enhancing the territories. Tourism is growing quickly, and the last few decades were crucial for attractive destinations, providing a specific boost for many regions.…”

“…Rural tourism appears in the literature strictly related to food tourism also thanks to a dramatic increase of consumer trust in local/rural food, km 0 production, and shorter food chains [63,108] due to several food scandals [9,[64][65][66][67]. That has increased scholarly interest over the past decade in terms of the important ramifications on local agricultural economies [101].…”