Comparison of Responsive Feeding Practices in Child Care and Home Environments in Nova Scotia.

Purpose: The values, beliefs and practices between the family home and child care environment can play a role in shaping a responsive food environment for young children, but few studies have explored the differences across these settings. The purpose of this study was to compare responsive feeding practices in child care and home environments through the framework of the 2019 Canada Food Guide healthy eating recommendations.Methods: Nova Scotia families and child care providers completed an online survey on responsive feeding. Independent-samples t-tests explored the differences between family and child care respondents on variables related to the 2019 Canada's Food Guide, including: food variety, mindfulness, eating with others, cooking more often, and enjoyment of food. A directed content analysis was used to code the open-ended qualitative questions.Results: Family respondents (n = 603) were more likely to report offering a variety of foods, repeated exposures to new foods, and asking children about fullness. Child care respondents (n = 253) were more likely to sit with children during meals and less likely to encourage children to finish their food.Conclusions: The results identify potential points of intervention, including the importance of increasing communication to ensure mutually supportive messages and environments for healthy eating.

Responsive feeding values and practices among families across the Canadian Maritime provinces.

Children benefit from responsive feeding practices where their internal signals of hunger and satiety are valued and met with prompt, emotionally supportive, and developmentally appropriate responses. Using an online survey, this study describes responsive feeding values and practices among parents of young children (0-5 years) (n = 1039) across 3 Canadian Maritime provinces. Independent-samples t-tests and 1-way ANOVA were performed to determine the differences in survey questions related to the responsive feeding practices and values. First-time parents and parents with younger children report implementing more consistently some of the challenging responsive feeding practices, such as avoiding pressuring their children to eat, compared with parents with multiple children and parents with children ages 3-5 years. Parents often have well-intended reasons to encourage their children to eat; however, these can coincide with non-responsive practices with food such as pressuring, rewarding, and restriction. These coercive practices may be ineffective and counterproductive as they reinforce reasons to eat unrelated to appetite and self-regulation. Preschool and early feeding interventions that support parents in understanding normal child development, including typical eating behaviours and self-regulation, could help to equip them for challenging feeding experiences and encourage long-term responsive feeding practices. Novelty: First-time parents and parents with younger children report more consistently avoiding pressuring their children to eat, compared with parents with multiple children and parents with children ages 3-5 years. Parents often have well-intended reasons to encourage their children to eat; however, these can coincide with non-responsive practices such as pressuring, rewarding, and restriction.