Published: April 2006

ID #: 1080

Journal: Future Child

Authors: Story M, Kaphingst KM, French S

See more related research

Share


A majority of American children participate in non-parental child-care arrangements in child-care centers and homes. The child-care setting can play a major role in shaping children’s dietary intake, physical activity, and energy balance. In this article, the authors discuss trends in child-care use, child-care food and physical activity policies and environments, and obesity prevention interventions in preschool settings. The authors also discuss their original research which examined state child-care licensing regulations related to food, physical activity, and media use in home- and center-based child-care settings. Recommendations for strengthening regulations and strategies for achieving more healthful food and physical activity environments are also discussed.

Related Research

July 2026

“It’s just not worth it anymore”: A Mixed Methods Study Examining the Impact of Reinstating Reimbursement Tiers in the Child and Adult Care Food Program

This study aimed to assess impacts of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) reinstatement of tiered reimbursements among family child care home (FCCH) providers, sponsors, and families in California. Irrespective of tier, surveyed providers reported that the reinstated, tiered reimbursements were insufficient (92.4%), resulting in reduced food variety (39.1%) and quality (14.8%), and More

July 2026

Forecasting WIC Funding Needs: Supporting Families, Strengthening Access

In partnership with Westat and with support from Healthy Eating Research, the National WIC Association (NWA) developed a new forecasting model to project funding needs of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) for Fiscal Year 2027. Report This report describes the model development, including methodology, as well as analysis conducted More

May 2026

SNAP participation and the healthfulness of food purchased by households with children during the pandemic

Changes in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic included emergency benefit allotments and operation waivers. Using five expenditure-based measures of the nutritional quality of food purchases, we tested whether changes in SNAP during the first year of the pandemic were associated with better nutritional quality of food purchases More