Association between compliance with NYC child care regulations concerning beverages in group child care centers and child-level beverage consumption

This paper examines the association between the New York City (NYC) regulations concerning beverages served in group child care centers and child-level beverage consumption. The regulations required that sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) should not be provided to children; children should only be served 100% fruit juice and no more than 6 ounces per day; milk served to children should have 1% of fat or less; water must be readily available to children throughout the day. We assessed whether center's compliance with the regulations was associated with children's consumption of SSBs, milk with more than 1% fat content, fruit juice, and water. Child-level data was collected through observation of 660 children enrolled in 110 group child care centers in NYC during a two day-long data collection periods (approximately 8 hours per day). Data on center-level compliance was collected through interviews with center staff and through site inventory. Compliance with the regulation was associated with lower likelihood that the child consumed SSBs and milk with more than 1% fat content and with greater likelihood that it consumed water during meals but not associated with the amount of 100% juice consumed during the day. The findings suggest that regulations may have beneficial effects on children's beverage consumption in child care settings.