Evaluation of snacks consumed by young children in child care and home settings

Mireault, Amy; Mann, Linda; Blotnicky, Karen; Rossiter, Melissa D.

doi:10.1186/s40723-023-00106-7

International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy

Table 2 Average daily intakes of food category/type from all, regulated child care (RCC) and home snacks

From: Evaluation of snacks consumed by young children in child care and home settings

Category Type	Average daily intake from All snacks n = 79	Average daily intakes from RCC snacks			Average daily intakes from home snacks
Category Type	Average daily intake from All snacks n = 79	All RCC n = 75	Morning n = 73	Afternoon n = 70	All Home n = 77	Morning n = 58	Afternoon n = 65	Evening n = 69
Vegetable	0.26	0.30¹	0.03	0.28	0.08¹	0.03	0.06	0.06
Vegetables	0.25	0.30	0.03	0.28	0.07	0.02	0.06	0.05
Potatoes	0.01	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.01	0.01	0.00	0.01
Fruit	1.60	1.40²	0.63	0.80	0.87²	0.65	0.55	0.57
Fresh/Canned	1.53	1.37	0.63	0.78	0.79	0.59	0.51	0.53
Dried	0.07	0.03	0.00	0.02	0.07	0.06	0.04	0.04
Grain	0.74	0.82³	0.52	0.30	0.26³	0.26	0.14	0.16
Breads	0.30	0.34	0.19	0.15	0.10	0.07	0.05	0.07
Quick Breads	0.18	0.23	0.13	0.11	0.04	0.06	0.05	0.01
RTE Cereals	0.21	0.22	0.18	0.03	0.08	0.12	0.01	0.06
Cooked Grains	0.03	0.01	0.00	0.01	0.03	0.01	0.02	0.02
Hot Cereals	0.02	0.03	0.02	0.00	0.01	0.00	0.00	0.01
Dairy	1.09	0.79	0.50	0.30	0.72	0.46	0.27	0.59
Milk	0.57	0.46	0.30	0.16	0.34	0.15	0.07	0.34
Flavored Milk	0.02	0.01	0.00	0.01	0.03	0.00	0.01	0.03
Yogurt	30	0.19	0.12	0.07	0.22	0.19	0.09	0.16
Cheese	0.16	0.12	0.06	0.06	0.10	0.09	0.09	0.05
Alternatives	0.02	0.02	0.01	0.00	0.02	0.03	0.00	0.01
Cream	0.01	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.01	0.00	0.00	0.01
Protein	0.16	0.15	0.04	0.11	0.08	0.01	0.05	0.07
Plant-based	0.12	0.14	0.03	0.10	0.04	0.00	0.02	0.04
Meats/Fish	0.03	0.01	0.00	0.01	0.03	0.00	0.03	0.03
Eggs	0.01	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.01	0.01	0.00	0.01
Water	1.02	0.96⁴	0.51	0.47	0.49⁴	0.40	0.36	0.29
Beverages	0.44	0.31	0.14	0.18	0.29	0.34	0.24	0.13
Juice	0.38	0.26	0.09	0.17	0.26	0.28	0.22	0.12
SSB	0.06	0.06	0.04	0.01	0.03	0.06	0.02	0.01
Salty/Sweet	1.10	0.71	0.21	0.52	0.81	0.47	0.74	0.47
Candy	0.11	0.04	0.01	0.02	0.11	0.04	0.08	0.07
Savoury	0.13	0.07	0.01	0.05	0.11	0.04	0.13	0.06
Crackers	0.49	0.45⁵	0.16	0.30	0.25⁵	0.13	0.22	0.16
Snack Bars	0.07	0.04	0.00	0.04	0.06	0.09	0.05	0.02
Baked Goods	0.22	0.12	0.01	0.11	0.19	0.13	0.13	0.13
Other	0.07	0.01	0.00	0.01	0.09	0.03	0.13	0.04
Mixed Dishes	0.08	0.08	0.04	0.03	0.04	0.06	0.01	0.03
Condiments/Dips	0.08	0.09⁶	0.02	0.07	0.02⁶	0.03	0.00	0.02
Dips/Sauces	0.04	0.06	0.01	0.04	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.01
Sugars	0.04	0.04	0.01	0.03	0.02	0.03	0.00	0.01

As not all children consumed all snacks, while at RCC and home, the numbers varied. Snacks referred to the foods and dinks consumed outside of main meals
¹t = (78) = 3.63, p < 0.001; ²t = (78) = 4.36, p < 0.001; ³t = (78) = 7.61, p < 0.001; ⁴t = (78) = 5.62, p < 0.001; ⁵t = (76) = − 2.52, p = 0.013; ⁶t = (78) = 3.15, p = 0.002

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