Page 23 - Demo

Between 70% and 89% of child care providers and teachers are making progress or already doing the following at follow-up:
 Parents receive written nutrition policies.
 Children decide which foods they will eat form the food served.
 Children serve themselves from serving dishes at mealtime.
 Children with special needs have their nutrition needs met.
 Adults eat the same foods as children at mealtime.
 Foods that are served reflect the ethnicity and the cultures of the children in the
center/home.
 Special occasions and holidays are celebrated with healthy foods or non-food treats.
The items which had the smallest percentages of providers and teachers reporting already making progress or doing the activity at follow-up were also the areas that had the greatest percentages of participants reporting that those items did not apply to their programs. Items with less than 45% of participants doing at follow-up include:
 If food is brought from home, parents are provided with guidelines.
 Breastfeeding mothers are provided access to a private area for breastfeeding or
pumping with appropriate seating.
 Staff are trained in proper handling and storage of breast milk.
 Parents are aware that they could leave breast milk at the child care site for their child.
There were items providers did not see as relevant to their programs. Compared with other survey items the following had slightly larger percentages of participants selecting “Does not apply to my site” at both baseline and follow-up (10% to approximately 50%):
 Children serve themselves from serving dishes at mealtime.
 Children with special needs have their nutrition need taken into account.
 Adults eat the same foods as children at mealtime.
 Foods are served that reflect the ethnicity and cultures of the children in the
center/home.
 Special occasions and holidays are celebrated with healthy foods or with non-food
treats.
Children serving themselves from dishes and adults eating the same foods as children at mealtime would not be applicable in programs where parents take food for their children into the program. Furthermore, those programs might also indicate that serving food that reflected the ethnicity and cultures of the children in the center or home does not apply to their program
Improving Health in Child Care Settings: 2016 19