Leveraging Federal, State, and Facility-Level Early Care and Education Systems and Providers Toward Optimal Child Nutrition in the First 1000 Days

• Published in: American journal of public health (1971) 2022-10, Vol.112 (S8), p.S779-S784
• Main Authors: Dooyema, Carrie A., Hall, Kelly, Tovar, Alison, Bauer, Katherine W., Lowry-Warnock, Amy, Blanck, Heidi M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age groups; Babies; Best practice; Breast feeding; Breastfeeding & lactation; Calories; Caregivers; Child care; Childhood; Children; Children & youth; Childrens health; Critical period; Cues; Disease control; Early childhood education; Eating; Eating behavior; Education; Educational systems; Exercise; Expenditures; Families & family life; Government agencies; Guidelines; Head Start project; Human nutrition; Hunger; Infants; Licenses; Licensing; Low income groups; Nutrition; Nutrition/Food; Opinions, Ideas, & Practice; Other Child and Adolescent Health; Other Maternal and Infant Health; Pandemics; Participation; Prevention; Public health; Public Health Practice; Screen time; Statistics; Subsidies; Toddlers
• ISSN: 0090-0036; 1541-0048
• DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2022.307082

Early childhood ¡s a critical period In the development, growth, and health of children. Many infants and toddlers in the United States spend time in nonparental early care and education (ECE) arrangements, which include care from child-care centers, family child-care homes, family members, and neighbors, or a combination of these providers. As of 2019,14% of infants (0-12 months of age) and 27% of toddlers (1-2 years) participated in a center-based care arrangement; however, these statistics do not account for children cared for in family child-care homes, which are also an important source of care for this age group.1Children spend much oftheirtime in the care of ECE providers, with infants and toddlers who attend ECE centers spending an average of 32 hours per week there,2 and it is recommended that children who attend an ECE program full time consume at least one half to two thirds of their daily calories at the program.3 ECE settings are therefore critical nutrition contexts to consider when helping children establish lifelong healthy dietary behaviors.Several scientific and expert consensus guidelines have helped advance our collective understanding of best practices when it comes to what and how to feed young children, including the Dietary Guidelines for Americans,4 the Healthy Eating Research feeding guidelines for infants and toddlers,5 and the Healthy Eating Research healthy beverage recommendations for young children.6 Also, Caring for Our Children (CFOC), created by the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education, outlines standards for a multitude of topics in ECE settings including breastfeeding and nutrition.7 Together, these guidelines help parents and caregivers understand important nutrition topics such as maintaining breastfeeding, providing opportunities for children to consume a diverse array of nutrient-dense foods, and engaging in feeding practices that allow children to communicate their hunger and fullness cues.