Food consumption among preschoolers. Does the school make a difference?

Few preschool children have a diet in line with nutrition recommendations. The school food policy is one of the factors that can influence children's eating habits. Multilevel regression analyses were carried out to test the potential influence of a school's food policy (N = 50) on the children's (N = 1678: ages 2.5-6.5 year) consumption of fresh fruit, snacks, water, fruit juice, milk, sugared milk drinks and sugared soft drinks. Between-school variation remained significant after controlling for individual level characteristics for fruit juice, sugared milk drinks and fruit. Significant school level variables were availability of sugared milk drinks and having food rules in the school policy. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.