Evaluation of Childhood Beverage Consumption and Perceptions of Water Safety

Context: Children ages 1-3 should consume about 35oz of plain water per day. The CDC and AAP recommend that children under 12 months do not receive any juice and children over 12 months should receive no more than 4oz of 100% juice with no sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). SSB consumption is associated with overweight and obesity, as well as an increase of tooth decay. 22% of preschool children do not regularly drink plain water and 46% regularly drink SSBs. Previous assessment found that families were more concerned about overall health and cavity prevention than childhood obesity, as well as concern about the safety of tap water.

Objective: Assess current water and other beverage consumption and beliefs about water safety.

Study Design and Analysis: Survey of the parents of 300 children between ages 0 and 5, developed based on prior qualitative study.

Preliminary results: Only 44% of participants believed their tap water is safe and 50% purchased the water they drink. 38% of participants believed that water fountains are safe and 56% believed public water bottle filling stations are safe. On average children drank 22.3oz of water per day, and 12% of children did not drink any water in a typical week. On average children drank 12.9oz of juice per day, with 80% of children drink juice at least weekly and 52% drinking juice daily. On average children drank 4.5oz of SSBs, with 44% drinking SSBs at least weekly and 20% drinking SSBs daily.

Conclusions: Children drank more juice and SSBs and less water than recommended. Previous assessment suggests that families may be more open to beverage consumption changes that other lifestyle changes that prevent childhood obesity. Improved perceptions of tap water safety may be a possible mechanism to decrease juice and SSB and increase water consumption.