Nutrition education training needs of early childhood program staff serving 3-5 year-old children

Satoko Chika

Promoting young children's healthy eating and healthy weights involves understanding the training needs of early childhood program staff (staff) and the partnership between staff and parents in care of the child. An assessment was conducted with staff to identify their interests and needs related to feeding, nutrition, and body weight for young children. Staff's reported attitudes related to communicating with parents about these topics were also assessed. A mail survey was conducted with early childhood teachers (n = 271) working with 3 to 5 year old children at centers. Extensive preliminary data from focus group studies with childcare staff and parents guided questionnaire design. Results showed staff's strong interest in training for nutrition content as well as ways to communicate with parents, notably among those with more years of work experience. Training topics most frequently reported were physical activity and active play for young children, healthy eating and nutrition for young children, and handling picky eating. Respondents overall recognized the importance of responding to early childhood overweight, but need support and guidelines for doing so. A majority of respondents (76%) at least somewhat agreed that the program should communicate with parents if childcare staff has concerns that a child is overweight or obese. However, 52% reported they have never talked with parents about a child being overweight and 20% reported feeling not at all comfortable with the idea of talking to parents about it. When assessing respondent's feelings about approaching parents to talk about their child being overweight, there was reported agreement that respondents would feel "worried that parents will take offense" (82%), "hesitant when parents have different cultural beliefs" (79%), and "worried that parents will deny there's a problem" (78%). Respondents who talked more frequently with parents about a child being overweight were significantly more likely to express positive attitudes toward communicating with parents about the issue. There is a need to provide training for staff that utilizes updates and flexible formats to meet both individual and program needs, including guidelines for communicating with parents about issues related to children's being overweight.

Nutrition education training needs of early childhood program staff serving 3-5 year-old children

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