August 2013 Discussion Summary

Among early childhood day care centers in North Carolina, this study found that the majority of centers did not offer the recommended amounts of dark green/orange vegetables and legumes, and exceeded the recommended limits on saturated fats and added sugars.

Q1: The results of this study show that the average vegetable intake score for participating daycares was less than half of that recommended by the Healthy Eating Index (2.26/5 for vegetable total, and 0.2/5 for dark green, orange vegetables, and legumes), indicating room for improvement. If you were nutrition director for a daycare, how might you plan to incorporate more vegetables into snacks and meals in the early childhood setting to ensure that the children are getting adequate nutrients? What barriers might you face?

Joy, Carly, Kaitlin and Erin mentioned adding pureed vegetables into foods such as sauces so kids won't notice them as a last resort to increase intake. On the other hand, Beth and Courtney made the point that hiding the vegetables will not make kids more likely to choose these foods as they get older, but rather getting them comfortable with these foods will. Alyssa mentioned the Ellyn Satter philosophy of child feeding, which gives the child choices over what and how much they will eat and supports child awareness of what they are eating.

Carly and Sarah mentioned trying different types of hummus as a way to increase the consumption and availability of legumes, as well as the consumption of fresh veggies with the dips. Beth, Joy, Sarah, Erin, Emily, and Courtney discussed methods of play/education that would introduce children to new vegetables, such as a vegetable of the day/week, and planting a garden with the children. Lynetta and Courtney brought up good points about economic barriers, space and storage limitations, and the importance of educating staff about healthy foods as well as kids and parents.

Q2: Providing nutritious snack and meal options in the daycare setting is important to ensure children have the building blocks for growth and success, but most children enrolled in daycare still eat 1-2 meals at home each day. Considering that most Americans do not meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, what nutrition education programs might you design for parents to bridge the gaps between nutrition at home and nutrition at daycare, if your previous plan were implemented?   How would you address barriers such as time and resources, considering many parents of children in daycare have constraints on time and budget?

Joy, Carly, Beth, Erin, Sarah, & Kaitlin discussed the idea of worksheets tracking each child's consumption of fruits and vegetables for the week using stickers to be sent home with the child and their parent. Another comment focus was parent eduction, with ideas focusing around take home materials for parents mentioned by Joy, Alyssa, Sarah, Kaitlin, & Carly, and recipe handouts mentioned by Erin, Courtney and Sarah.

A third great idea was the use of MyPlate for children to color and to help them and parents become familiar with dietary guidelines by sending it home with the children. Thanks to Carly, Alyssa, Emily for this contribution.

Q3: Healthy foods often have a bad reputation among young children, especially those who are picky eaters. What education strategies would you use to promote a positive attitude toward nutritious foods in this population? What activities would you suggest to involve them in choosing their own foods in a fun way?

Joy discussed using the varying colors of vegetables to capture children's interest by coloring, painting, and sculpting veggies with Play Doh, and by handing out stickers. Carly added to this with the idea of matching veggies to their respective color on a giant rainbow.

Alyssa mentioned the importance of family style meals for the development of food choice autonomy and positive relationships with all types of food. She also discussed ideas for getting the kids involved in food preparation, coloring, and interactive story time with vegetables to pique their interest. Beth added to this idea by keeping things simple and fun with games, and Courtney with allowing children to play with their vegetables and giving them fun names. Emily had a cool idea to create a blind taste test game for kids to guess the vegetables they are trying.

Kaitlin and Sarah mentioned the important role of gardening in getting children involved with their food, and Lynetta discussed lesson plans involving growing seasons and local foods through farm visits and in-classroom talks with gardeners and farmers.

Overall, there were some excellent and age-appropriate suggestions for this month's discussion, many of which could be fairly easily implemented in the day care setting.