P148 Parent and Family Childcare Home Provider Feeding Practices and Child Diet Quality at Home and in Childcare

Abstract

Background Most US children under the age of 6 attend out-of-home care. This has led to a shared feeding responsibility between parents and child care providers, both influencing children's eating habits via feeding practices. However, little is known about caregiver feeding practices and child diet quality among children attending family child care homes (FCCHs). Objective To describe parent/provider (FCCP) feeding practices and child diet quality at home and in the FCCH, and examine associations between caregiver feeding practices and child diet quality. Study Design, Setting, Participants This was a cross-sectional mixed-methods study including 33 FCCPs-parent-child triads (87% and 64% Hispanic, respectively) from two northeastern states. Measurable Outcome/Analysis Caregiver feeding practices were collected via a self-report questionnaire. Child dietary intake at home was collected via telephone interviews, and via direct observation in the FCCH. Healthy Eating Index (HEI-2015) scores were calculated for dietary intake in both settings. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all variables. We used the Mann-Whitney U tests to examine differences between caregiver feeding practices, the Signed Rank Test to examine differences in child HEI-2015 between settings and Spearman correlations to examine associations between feeding practices and child diet quality in both settings. All analyses were conducted using SAS 9.4. Results Compared to FCCPs parents engaged in significantly greater frequency of controlling feeding practices (P Conclusion Findings suggest that the FCCH environment is more supportive of promoting healthy eating habits in preschool-aged children. However, there is a need for improvement in both settings to decrease the frequency of non-responsive feeding practices and increase child diet quality. Funding None.