A Qualitative Study: Perceived Barriers and Facilitators to Nutrition Standard Adherence by In-home Childcare Providers

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) nutrition standards may present food purchasing, preparation, and feeding challenges for caregivers of young children. To elucidate perceived barriers and facilitators faced by in-home childcare providers to following the CACFP food and beverage nutrition standards. Virtual, semistructured individual interviews elicited perceptions from a cross section of low-income, in-home childcare providers in Michigan. Twenty childcare providers of various races, ethnicity, urban and rural residence, and licensure status. Thematic coding analysis with NVivo (ver12.0) to organize and interpret data. Four primary barriers to adhering to the CACFP nutrition standards emerged including (1) noncompliant food preferences of children and providers; (2) higher cost and lower availability of CACFP-approved items; (3) celebrations and food rewards; (4) excessive time and effort needed to prepare foods and beverages, especially with dietary restrictions for some children. Ten perceived facilitators included (1) using nutrition education available through community organizations; (2) finding convenient and easy ways to prepare foods and beverages; (3) using CACFP and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children guidelines and funding; (4) increasing variety of foods and beverages by using a menu or recalling items recently served; (5) modeling eating healthful foods and encouraging sampling of new foods and beverages; (6) mixing preferred foods/beverages with less preferred; (7) using nutrition information available from social media and from peers; (8) allowing children to choose foods and beverages; (9) serving the same eligible food and beverages to all children; and (10) provider concern about impact of foods and beverages on children’s health and behavior. Results from this study can inform nutrition education from community organizations that occurs in tandem with CACFP sponsor organizations. In addition, they can be utilized to address state-level licensure regulations and quality improvement rating systems that include nutrition standards childcare providers are encouraged or required to follow.