The Child and Adult Care Food Program and the nutrition of preschoolers

Abstract

Children spend a considerable amount of time in preschools and child care centers. As a result, these settings may have an influence on their diet, weight, and food security, and are potentially important contexts for interventions to address nutritional health. The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is one such intervention. No national study has compared nutrition-related outcomes of children in CACFP-participating centers to those of similar children in non-participating centers. We use a sample of four-year old children drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort to obtain estimates of associations between CACFP program participation and consumption of milk, fruits, vegetables, fast food, and sweets, and indicators of overweight, underweight status and food insecurity. We find that, among low-income children, CACFP participation moderately increases consumption of milk and vegetables, and may also reduce the prevalence of overweight and underweight. Effects on other outcomes are generally small and not statistically significant.

Providers perspectives on self-regulation impact their use of responsive feeding practices in child care

“…Existing obesity prevention educational curricula (e.g., the Preschool Obesity Prevention Series) (Miller et al, 2012) seek to enhance children's behavioral regulation skills, but educational materials focused on enhancing children's regulatory skills specific to the childcare context are lacking. CACFP participation has been associated with improved nutritional quality of foods and beverages served in childcare centers (Ritchie et al, 2012) and among low-income children, has been shown to moderately increase consumption of milk and vegetables (Korenman, Abner, Kaestner, & Gordon, 2012). The CACFP recommendations could be further leveraged to help prevent childhood obesity by placing a greater emphasis on the development of training materials for improving childcare providers' use of responsive feeding practices that support children's self-regulation of their energy intake.…”

Policy Improves What Beverages Are Served to Young Children in Child Care

“…We and others have previously shown that CACFP sites may be better informed about nutrition and provide healthier options to children. 13,24 During a 2008 national study, 59% of Head Start centers never served flavored milk, 99% never served other sugarsweetened beverages, and 70% served mostly low-fat or nonfat milk to children. 25 Higher numbers for sugarsweetened beverages were reported by our sample, which included other categories of child care in addition to Head Start.…”

Head Start and children's nutrition, weight, and health care receipt

“…To examine a comprehensive set of outcomes closely related to HS health and nutrition components, based on prior research (Belfield & Kelly, in press; Gormley et al, 2010; Hale et al, 1990; Korenman et al, in press; USDHHS, ACF, 2010), we analyzed six nutrition, weight, and health care receipt outcome variables that were collected at the kindergarten wave. First, we used BMI z -scores, calculated by normalizing BMI to the population based on children's age in months and gender (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2000).…”

“…They found that HS participants showed no differences in weight and nutrition status compared to those who received care from relatives, non-relatives, or parents. Second, Korenman, Abner, Kaestner, and Gordon (in press) compared nutrition-related outcomes (e.g., weight status and food intake) between children in centers (e.g., HS, pre-K, and other preschool centers) participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and children in non-participating centers. They found that CACFP participation among low-income children was associated with improved nutrition.…”