Good food in family day care: Improving nutrition and food safety in family day care

Aim: To determine the effectiveness of a nutrition and food safety intervention in family day care schemes. Methods: Staff and carers from seven Sydney family day care schemes completed a nutrition and food safety knowledge questionnaire and diet history about food and drinks offered to children in care before and after attending workshops and receiving advice and resources. Participating schemes' nutrition and food safety policies were assessed before and after intervention. At baseline, 18 staff members and 104 carers were interviewed. Diet histories were collected for 20 infants and 103 one‐to‐five‐year olds. Post intervention, 21 staff and 102 carers were interviewed and diet histories collected for 22 infants and 102 one‐to‐five‐year olds. Baseline and post‐intervention data were compared using the χ2‐test for categorical data (or the Fisher's exact test when expected values were below five), and t‐tests for independent samples for normally distributed means. Results: Nutrition and food safety knowledge and the number (from one to seven) and quality of appropriate policies improved post intervention. Changes in mean per cent nutrition scores for infants (78.2% to 83.4%) and for one‐to‐five‐year olds (68.8% to 75.2%; P < 0.01) indicated improvements in nutritional quality of food and drinks offered during care. Conclusion: Health promotion strategies can improve food and drinks offered in family day care and make a sustainable contribution to children's access to safe and nutritious food.