Exploring Parent's Breakfast Choices for Young Children in Child Care Centers

Objective The increasing childhood obesity rates cause great concern for America. Breakfast offers an important opportunity to teach healthy eating habits and supply energy and nutrients for growing children. This study explored breakfast choices working parents make for their young children in child care. Methods Registered dietitians conducted oral breakfast recalls with 241 parents of children, ages 2–6 years, at 10 Central Texas childcare centers at morning drop‐off time. Descriptive statistics were recorded to evaluate food groups, types of foods and servings sizes. Results All parents reported serving their child breakfast. Fruit was served by 42% (n=102) of parents and 100% fruit juice by 32% (n=78). Both fruit and juice were offered by 33 parents with the remainder 147 (61%) receiving fruit or juice. Cereal was served for 34% (n =82) of the meals. Cereals that provided at least 3 grams of dietary fiber made up 51% (n =42) of total cereal. Milk and yogurt were reported by 64% (n=155) and 17% (n=41) of parents, respectively. Whole milk was most commonly offered (23%) and low fat yogurt was the most frequently reported type of yogurt (75%). High sugar cereals, and high sugar or high fat grain items such as pastries or biscuits were reported by 48% (n=83) of the parents. Over 60% of the reported breakfasts contained three or less different food items. Conclusions Parents demonstrated their understanding that a child needs breakfast to grow and be healthy. Nutrition education materials need to focus on improved breakfast choices that include more low fat dairy and high dietary fiber foods and less high sugar and fat items.