Open Access, Peer-reviewed
pISSN 2288-3886
eISSN 2288-3959
    J Nutr Health. 2015 Feb;48(1):71-80. Korean.
    Published online Feb 28, 2015.
    https://doi.org/10.4163/jnh.2015.48.1.71
    © 2015 The Korean Nutrition Society
    Original Article

    Children's eating behaviors and teachers'feeding practices during mealtime at child-care centers

    Yoonjae Yeoh,1,2 and Sooyoun Kwon3
      • 1Geumcheon Center for Children's Foodservice Management, Seoul 153-856, Korea.
      • 2Department of Food and Nutrition, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea.
      • 3Department of Food and Nutrition, Honam University, Gwangju 506-714, Korea.
    • To whom correspondence should be addressed. tel: +82-62-940-5428, Email: soonara@honam.ac.kr
    Received July 29, 2014; Revised September 01, 2014; Accepted November 18, 2014.

    This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

    Abstract

    Purpose

    The aim of this study was to investigate children's eating behaviors and teachers' feeding practices during mealtime at child-care centers. In addition, it focused on the difference of teachers' feeding practices on children age under 2 years ( ≤ 2 years old) and 3 years and older (3~5 years old).

    Methods

    A total of 169 teachers working at child-care centers in Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, Korea, completed self-report questionnaires in December 2013. The questionnaires were composed of questions on children's eating behaviors, feeding practices; 'Explain', 'Praise', 'Modeling', 'Indulgent', 'Insist' and 'Reward', interaction with home, and a range of demographic information (analysis rate: 51.2%).

    Results

    Approximately 59.2% of teachers had not taken a class on feeding practice and the average score for nutrition knowledge was 14.6 out of 30 points. The most undesirable eating behavior of children during mealtime was 'eating while walking around (36.7%)' both ' ≤ 2 years old' and '3~5 years old'. Regarding feeding practices according to children's undesirable eating behaviors during mealtime, there were differences between age groups. When children did not eat all of the foods that were served and did not clean up silverware or seats after having food, teachers caring for '3~5 years old' practiced 'Explain'. However, percentages of those who practiced 'Indulgent' and 'Modeling' were significantly higher in teachers caring for ' ≤ 2 years old' than '3~5 years old'.

    Conclusion

    These findings indicated that teachers caring for children lack education and knowledge about nutrition and feeding practice. In addition, verbal feeding practices, like explain, were mainly used by teachers. As a result, for teachers, guidelines and programs for learning about age appropriate feeding practice during mealtime at child-care centers may be needed.

    Keywords
    children; child-care center; eating behavior; feeding practice

    Tables

    Table 1
    General characteristics of child-care centers and teachers

    Table 2
    Nutrition knowledge score of child-care teachers

    Table 3
    The most undesirable eating behavior of children during mealtime at child-care center

    Table 4
    Frequency1) of children's undesirable eating behavior during mealtime at child-care center

    Table 5
    Feeding practices performed by teacher regarding children's undesirable eating behaviors during mealtime at child-care center

    Table 6
    Interaction about feeding practices with parents

    References

      1. Ministry of Health and Welfare (KR). Statistics of childcare 2013. Sejong: Ministry of Health and Welfare; 2014 [2014 Apr 17].
        Available from:http://www.mw.go.kr.
      1. Statistics Korea. Educational statistics 2013. Daejeon: Statistics Korea; 2013 [2014 Apr 17].
        Available from:http://kostat.go.kr/portal/korea/index.action.
      1. Lee YS, Lim HS, Ahn HS, Chang NS. In: Nutrition through the life cycle. 3rd edition. Seoul: Kyomunsa; 2011.
      1. Hwang HS, Lee HY, Lee KH, Lee JH, Shin KS, Youn KM, Kang SH, Yoon SJ, Hwang SY. In: Child development and education. Seoul: Hakjisa; 2008.
      1. Kim SH, Kim OS, Choi HY, Park SS, Kwon SY. In: Children's nutrition. Seoul: Powerbook; 2013.
      1. Branen L, Fletcher J. Comparison of college students' current eating habits and recollections of their childhood food practices. J Nutr Educ 1999;31(6):304–310.
      1. Fisher JO, Mitchell DC, Smiciklas-Wright H, Birch LL. Parental influences on young girls' fruit and vegetable, micronutrient, and fat intakes. J Am Diet Assoc 2002;102(1):58–64.
      1. Park YM, Ahn YK. The relationship between teacher's and parent's nutrition knowledge, foodhabit, diet-guidance for early childhood and children's nutrition knowledge, foodhabit. Wonkwang J Humanit 2012;13(1):67–91.
      1. Klesges RC, Coates TJ, Brown G, Sturgeon-Tillisch J, Moldenhauer-Klesges LM, Holzer B, Woolfrey J, Vollmer J. Parental influences on children's eating behavior and relative weight. J Appl Behav Anal 1983;16(4):371–378.
      1. Drucker RR, Hammer LD, Agras WS, Bryson S. Can mothers influence their child's eating behavior? J Dev Behav Pediatr 1999;20(2):88–92.
      1. Clark HR, Goyder E, Bissell P, Blank L, Peters J. How do parents' child-feeding behaviours influence child weight? Implications for childhood obesity policy. J Public Health (Oxf) 2007;29(2):132–141.
      1. Rodgers RF, Paxton SJ, Massey R, Campbell KJ, Wertheim EH, Skouteris H, Gibbons K. Maternal feeding practices predict weight gain and obesogenic eating behaviors in young children: a prospective study. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 2013;10:24.
      1. Hendy HM, Raudenbush B. Effectiveness of teacher modeling to encourage food acceptance in preschool children. Appetite 2000;34(1):61–76.
      1. Acharya K, Feese M, Franklin F, Kabagambe EK. Body mass index and dietary intake among Head Start children and caregivers. J Am Diet Assoc 2011;111(9):1314–1321.
      1. Lee KW, Nam HW, Myung CO, Park YS. Nutrition knowledge and guidance activities during meal time of day-care center teachers. J East Asian Soc Diet Life 2005;15(5):623–631.
      1. Rho JO, Lee SI, Lee JS. A study on the dietary behaviors of daycare center teachers and their meal attitude education during meal time in Jeonju area of Korea. Korean J Food Nutr 2010;23(3):342–351.
      1. Moon JO, Suh YS. A study on the meaning and operation of lunch time in childcare centers. J Korean Child Care Educ 2008;4(1):51–66.
      1. Kang KH, Jun HJ. Lunch time in childcare centers: practises and challenges. Early Child Educ Res Rev 2012;16(1):275–303.
      1. Park NY, Park HK, Park HJ, Seo MK, Im HR, Lim HH, Jung JH, Yoon KS. Employee food-hygiene and nutrition awareness and performance at child care centers and kindergartens located in Seoul. Korean J Food Cookery Sci 2011;27(2):45–59.
      1. Musher-Eizenman D, Holub S. Comprehensive feeding practices questionnaire: validation of a new measure of parental feeding practices. J Pediatr Psychol 2007;32(8):960–972.
      1. Lee JY, Cho DS. The eating behavior and food preference of preschool children in Sungnam day care facilities. Korean J Food Nutr 2006;19(4):482–495.
      1. Ha YR, Ko GP. A study on the characteristics of teacher's perception on infant's behavioral problem at infant day care center. Korea J Child Care Educ 2007;48:35–57.
      1. Chung OB. In: Child development. Seoul: Hakjisa; 2006.
      1. Kang HJ, Kim KM, Kim KJ, Ryu ES. The development and effectevaluation of nutrition education program for nutrition support in kindergarten. Korean J Nutr 2000;33(1):68–79.
      1. Lee NH, Joung HJ, Cho SH, Choi YS. A study on the development of programs for the nutrition education of preschool nursery facilities. Korean J Community Nutr 2001;6(2):234–242.
      1. Sin EK, Lee YK. Development and application of a health belief model based nutrition education program for day care center children. Korean J Community Nutr 2006;11(4):488–501.
      1. Pu SS, Cho IK. Mothers' conceptions of everyday rules for young children. Korean J Child Stud 2008;29(5):113–131.
      1. Birch LL, Fisher JO, Davison KK. Learning to overeat: maternal use of restrictive feeding practices promotes girls' eating in the absence of hunger. Am J Clin Nutr 2003;78(2):215–220.
      1. Han YM, Yee YH, Lee JS, Oh YJ, Kwon JY, An KO, Park ES. A study of early child care center teachers' attitudes for meal and snack guidance between Sweden and Korea. Korean J Community Nutr 2004;9(6):706–715.
      1. Davis CM. Results of the self-selection of diets by young children. Can Med Assoc J 1939;41(3):257–261.
      1. Birch LL, Johnson SL, Andresen G, Peters JC, Schulte MC. The variability of young children's energy intake. N Engl J Med 1991;324(4):232–235.
      1. Birch LL, Deysher M. Caloric compensation and sensory specific satiety: evidence for self regulation of food intake by young children. Appetite 1986;7(4):323–331.
      1. Johnson SL, Birch LL. Parents' and children's adiposity and eating style. Pediatrics 1994;94(5):653–661.
      1. Addessi E, Galloway AT, Visalberghi E, Birch LL. Specific social influences on the acceptance of novel foods in 2-5-year-old children. Appetite 2005;45(3):264–271.
      1. American Dietetic Association. Position of the American Dietetic Association: benchmarks for nutrition programs in child care settings. J Am Diet Assoc 2005;105(6):979–986.
      1. Lee GH. An analysis of teachers' awareness of the realities of nutrition education for young children. Early Child Educ Res Rev 2009;13(3):69–96.
      1. Essery EV, DiMarco NM, Rich SS, Nichols DL. Mothers of preschoolers report using less pressure in child feeding situations following a newsletter intervention. J Nutr Educ Behav 2008;40(2):110–115.
    Cited by
    Crossref 5
    Google Scholar 
    Scopus 1
    MeSH Terms
    Child
    Education
    Feeding Behavior*
    Humans
    Korea
    Learning
    Meals*
    Seoul
    Surveys and Questionnaires
    Walking
    Metrics
    Share
    Tables
    slide
    slide
    slide
    slide
    slide
    slide

    1 / 6

    PERMALINK