Childcare Food Provision Recommendations Vary across Australia: Jurisdictional Comparison and Nutrition Expert Perspectives.

Alison Spence,Amy Wakem,Ros Sambell,Rebecca Golley,Louisa Matwiejczyk,Penelope Love,Rebecca Byrne,Amanda Devine

doi:10.3390/ijerph17186793

Abstract

Early childhood is a critical stage for nutrition promotion, and childcare settings have the potential for wide-reaching impact on food intake. There are currently no Australian national guidelines for childcare food provision, and the comparability of existing guidelines across jurisdictions is unknown. This project aimed to map and compare childcare food provision guidelines and to explore perspectives amongst early childhood nutrition experts for alignment of jurisdictional childcare food provision guidelines with the Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADG). A desktop review was conducted and formed the basis of an online survey. A national convenience sample of childhood nutrition experts was surveyed. Existing guideline recommendations for food group serving quantities were similar across jurisdictions but contained many minor differences. Of the 49 survey respondents, most (84–100%) agreed with aligning food group provision recommendations to provide at least 50% of the recommended ADG serves for children. Most (94%) agreed that discretionary foods should be offered less than once per month or never. Jurisdictional childcare food provision guidelines do not currently align, raising challenges for national accreditation and the provision of support and resources for services across jurisdictions. Childhood nutrition experts support national alignment of food provision guidelines with the ADG.

Highlights

Childhood is a key life stage for implementing strategies to improve nutrition and prevent obesity [1,2]
Western Australia (WA) had no specific food provision guidelines, with services generally referring to the Supporting Nutrition for Australian Childcare (SNAC) website, where information is based on the Start Right Eat Right resources and the Australian Dietary Guidelines [9]
This study found that more than 80% of childhood nutrition experts were in agreement that food provision guidelines should align with the Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADG) quantities of the five food groups, that this was a realistic goal for services and that a minimum of 50% of food groups should be provided whilst a child is in care

Summary

Introduction

Childhood (birth to 5 years) is a key life stage for implementing strategies to improve nutrition and prevent obesity [1,2]. Food preferences and dietary patterns are developed in early childhood and can influence later habits [3,4]. Nutrition in early childhood influences both short- and long-term health including growth and development, risk of overweight and obesity, and related chronic disease [2,5,6]. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 6793; doi:10.3390/ijerph17186793 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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