Browsing by Subject "ruokailukäytänteet"

The development of a child’s eating habits is influenced by the individual characteristics of the child but also by the feeding practices used by adults during mealtimes. Feeding practices are behavioral approaches by which adults try to control what and how much children eat. Health and Joy from food – meal recommendations for early childhood education and care (VRN 2018) provides recommended feeding practices for early childhood education personnel to be used during preschool mealtimes. The purpose of this study is to determine how personnel’s background factors relate to the implementation of these mealtime recommendations. In addition, we look at how guidance related to mealtimes given from outside of the preschool affects this relationship. The study was conducted as a quantitative study. Data comprised of questionnaires filled in by preschool personnel in the cross-sectional study of the DAGIS project in 2015–2016. 379 preschool staff members from 66 preschools returned the questionnaire. Four mealtime recommendations were identified: modelling healthy eating, encouraging children to eat vegetables and fruit, helping children to recognize feelings of hunger and satiety and avoiding using food as a reward. The associations between personnel’s background factors and the implementation of mealtime recommendations was examined using logistic regression analysis. The background factors examined were level of education in early childhood education, age group, work experience in early childhood education, and knowledge of the recommended intake of vegetables, fruits, and berries for children. Respondent’s gender and municipality were used as confounding factors. The effect of guidance from outside the preschool was analyzed by including an interaction term. The results showed that respondents who did not have a degree in early childhood education were less likely to implement several mealtime recommendations than those with a preschool teacher university degree. Respondents aged 40-49 were more likely to implement more mealtime recommendations than those under 30. Other background factors were not related to the number of recommendations implemented. Guidance given from outside the preschool did not affect the association between background factors and the implementation of mealtime recommendations. The research reveals the importance of education in the fulfillment of early childhood mealtime recommendations.