Despite expert recommendations, U.S. parents often serve sugar-sweetened children’s drinks, including sweetened fruit-flavored drinks and toddler milks, to young children. This qualitative research explored parents’ understanding of common marketing tactics used to promote these drinks and whether they mislead parents to believe the drinks are healthy and/or necessary for children. We conducted nine focus groups More
Keywords: Front-of-package labeling, Sugar-sweetened beverages, Water
Young children regularly consume sugary fruit drinks, in part because parents may falsely believe they are healthful due to front-of-package (FOP) claims and imagery. The goal of this study was to assess: 1) the prevalence of FOP claims/imagery on fruit-flavored beverages purchased by U.S. households with 0-5-year-olds, and 2) proportional differences in beverages purchased with More
Keywords: Front-of-package labeling
This study aimed to examine how food environments around family child care homes (FCCHs) are associated with the healthfulness of foods served to children. The study included cross-sectional data from a mail survey of 132 Mississippi FCCHs. Rural FCCHs with higher counts of supermarkets, convenience stores, and produce stores had lower compliance with selected best More
Keywords: Child Care/Preschool, Neighborhood
In 2018, Healthy Eating Research (HER)—a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)—developed a national research agenda to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) and increase access to and consumption of safe drinking water among 0- to 5-year-olds. Through this process, it became clear that a lack of consistent recommendations for beverage More
Keywords: Sugar-sweetened beverages, Water
Date: November 2021
Resource Type: Commissioned Research Project Summary
Focus Areas: Beverages Early Childhood
Dietary recommendations are available about what to feed children ages 2 to 8 for optimal health, but relatively little guidance exists about how to feed those children. Because of the discrepancy between young children’s recommended and actual dietary intakes, there is a clear need for such guidance. To address this gap, Healthy Eating Research convened More
Keywords: Child Care/Preschool, Fruits and vegetables, Home, Self-regulation, Snacks
Date: October 2021
Resource Type: Expert Panel Report
Focus Areas: Diet Quality & Healthy Weight Early Childhood
The Appalachian region of the U.S. is disproportionately impacted by poverty, obesity, and nutrition-related chronic diseases. Evidence suggests that caregiver feeding practices may promote healthful eating behaviors among children; however, this has not been examined in low-income, rural, Appalachian populations. This study examines caregiver feeding practices as predictors for child diet in low-income Appalachian families, More
Keywords: Fruits and vegetables, Home, Rural
Date: August 2021
Resource Type: Journal Article
Focus Areas: Diet Quality & Healthy Weight Early Childhood
Bottle-fed infants are at greater risk for overfeeding and rapid weight gain (RWG), so evidence-based strategies for promoting healthy bottle-feeding practices are needed. The aim of this study was to assess whether policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) strategies for promoting responsive bottle-feeding practices within the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) More
Keywords: Infant Feeding, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
Date: June 2021
Resource Type: Journal Article
Focus Areas: Beverages Early Childhood Nutrition Policy & Programs
The purpose of this study is to conduct a discrete choice experiment to investigate whether warning labels on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) alter the effectiveness of a tax on SSBs, especially among parents who are Black, Latinx and lower income. The research team will conduct an online choice experiment with 2,700 parents and caregivers of children More
Keywords: Front-of-package labeling, Sugar-sweetened beverages, Taxes
Date: April 2021
Resource Type: Grant Summary
Focus Areas: Beverages Early Childhood Pricing & Economics
The project’s goal is to conduct a randomized, controlled trial to evaluate the impact of a culturally appropriate social behavior change communication campaign on sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) and water consumption among black families with children aged 0-5 years. Specific aims include: (1) Deliver a culturally appropriate social behavior change communication campaign with messages delivered through More
Keywords: Message Framing, Sugar-sweetened beverages, Water
This study seeks to develop and test the impact of “nudges” in an online grocery store on purchases of fruit drinks and healthier substitutes among a sample of low-income parents of children ages 1-5 years. The goal of this project is to reduce fruit drink intake among low-income children, including those whose parents participate in More