Quality of the infant/toddler feeding and physical activity environment in child care centers

Abstract

The rising rates of overweight and obesity have led to an examination of nutrition practices across institutions. With a significant percentage of mothers in the labor force, more than half of infant and toddlers are in non-parental care. Bringing together the nutrition and child care quality literatures, this study examines the determinants of the quality of the feeding and physical activity environment (feeding quality) for infant and toddlers in child care centers. The measure of feeding quality is based on items from the revised Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale where 1 is inadequate, 3 is minimal, 5 is good, and 7 is excellent. Using a sample of North Carolina child care centers, the bivariate findings are that centers with high overall quality (state’s quality rating) provide higher feeding quality (4.42) than centers with medium (3.05) or low quality (3.53) at p<0.001. Centers that participate in the federal food subsidy program have lower quality (3.43) than those centers who do not participate (4.06) at p<0.10. Multivariate results indicate significantly higher feeding quality in centers with a high staff-child ratio (p<0.05) and in centers with a lower percentage of African American infants and toddlers (p<0.10). Further research is needed to confirm these findings and understand how to improve infant/toddler feeding quality in child care centers. Funding source: National Institutes of Health/NICHD