Home food access and children's heart healthy dietary intake at home and child care.

Background: About 12 million children under 5 years of age attend early care and education centers (ECEs). Child intake at home can be impacted by food insecurity, which is higher among low income, rural, and racially diverse families. Aim: Determine whether greater access to fruits, vegetables, and snacks at home was associated with heart-healthy diet score at home and at ECEs in preschool-age children, and to determine whether there is a difference in heart-healthy diet score between home and ECEs. Methods: Cross-sectional study involving children (3-to-5-year-old, n = 88) who attended 16 licensed ECEs across Oklahoma. Caregivers completed the Healthy Home Survey and 3-Dinner Dietary recall to report children's home food access and home dinner dietary intake, respectively. Researchers recorded children's ECE lunch consumption using the Dietary Observation for Child Care. Heart-healthy diet score was derived from composite scores for six variables: consumption of fish, fruits, vegetables, sodium, fiber, and sugary drinks. Results: Home access to total fruits and vegetables (16.2 ± 6.3) outnumbered snacks (5.5 ± 3.0). No difference in composite heart-healthy diet score between ECEs (1.50 ± 0.8) and home (1.27 ± 0.9, P = 0.0851). Children within neither environment met recommendations for most variables (vegetables [18-24%], fruit [6-10%], fish [5-10%], fiber [1%], sodium [22-39%]). No relationship between home food access variables and the heart-healthy diet scores at home or ECEs. Conclusion: Dietary intake of children at home and ECEs does not meet heart-healthy diet score recommendations. Interventions should support preschool aged children from families that are located rurally, low-income, racial minorities, and whose primary caregivers work outside the home.

Characteristics of children's agricultural tasks in Hmong farming communities.

Hmong farm children perform different work tasks, have different roles and responsibilities, and are thus exposed to different hazards than most North American farm children. Hmong children perform tasks in four time-related phases: pre-harvest, harvest, post-harvest, and product marketing. Standard health and safety educational materials, including the North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks, are not widely accepted by Minnesota Hmong farmers. This qualitative work is a precursor to the creation of culturally and contextually appropriate materials and guidelines to address the health and safety needs of Hmong children working on their family's production acreage. Methods used include literature review, focus groups, semistructured interviews, and field observations.