Creating healthy food environments for young children can foster healthy behaviours that provide a foundation for lifelong health. There is established evidence of responsive feeding on children’s overall nutritional intake by building comfort with a variety of foods and textures, supporting self-regulation by responding to hunger and fullness cues, and developing a lifelong positive relationship with food. Child care programs in Canada follow provincial/territorial nutrition standards that guide food provisions, along with responsive feeding practices (e.g., routines, family-style meal service, and caregiver engagement). Typically there is an emphasis on what children are being fed and less attention on the implementation of how children are being fed. Educator’s use of feeding behaviours such as pressuring, rewarding, and restriction are often well-meaning, but these non-responsive practices have the potential for creating an unhealthy association with food, interfering with emotional regulation, and under- or over- consumption. There is a myriad of implementation barriers that make responsive feeding difficult, including lack of nutrition knowledge, limited resources, and external pressures. There can also be barriers related to personal beliefs, societal norms and attitudes shaped by diet culture, and food marketing. This session will provide an overview of nutrition policy implementation in child care settings across Canada and in the United States. Exemplar implementation strategies will be shared highlighting intervention studies in the Maritime Provinces, Ontario and Nebraska (US). Together, this session will explore how policy environments influence nutrition feeding practices at the local level, offering recommendations for bridging the knowledge-to-action gap across Canada and beyond.
Applied Human Sciences
University of Prince Edward Island
Dr. Misty Rossiter is a Registered Dietitian and a Professor of Foods & Nutrition in the Department of Applied Human Sciences at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI). She holds a BSc in Foods & Nutrition from UPEI, a MSc in Applied Human Nutrition from Mount Saint Vincent University, and a PhD in Family Relations and Applied Nutrition from the University of Guelph. Dr. Rossiter is interested in early childhood development, with a particular focus on responsive feeding practices and nutrition policy. Her work supports families and early learning settings to create healthy eating environments that maximize nutritional opportunities and encourage children to develop a positive relationship with food. Misty has been recognized nationally with an award from Dietitians of Canada for Leadership in the Profession related to her work in early years nutrition and has co-led the CELEBRATE Feeding project.