Table 1.

Childcare staff food practices assessed in the questionnaire for childcare staff.

Category	Concept	Item	Answering Scale a
Child involvement	Child involvement in food preparation	(Older) children are allowed to help with the preparation/serving/clearing of the food (e.g., setting/clearing the table/preparing a sandwich)	A
	Staff explains food preparation	Staff tells children what they do during the preparation/serving/clearing of the food (e.g., ‘I’m now going to pare the apples’)	A
Meal time practices	Encouragement to eat	Staff encourage children to continue eating (e.g., plate must be cleared, ‘finish your cookie’)	A
	Giving food without asking	Staff provides the children food without asking whether the child wants it	A
	Encouragement new foods	Staff encourages children to try new or less favourite foods	A
	Accepting individual intake differences	Staff accept differences in dietary intake behavior between children (e.g., not rushing a slow eater to eat more quickly)	A
Food rules	Rules about order of eating	Are there any rules about the order in which foods have to be consumed?	B
	Rules about amount of food	Are there any rules regarding the maximum amount a child is allowed to eat or drink? (e.g., a maximum number of slices of bread)	B
Modeling	Staff eat together with children	Staff eats together with the children	A
	Staff eat the same food as the children	Staff eats the same food as the children (e.g., also preparing sandwiches at lunch, also eating fruit as a snack)	A
	Frequency staff consume unhealthy food	Staff eats unhealthy food (e.g., sweets, snacks) in front of the children	A
Instrumental feeding		Staff uses food to control behavior (e.g., (threatening) to take food as punishment, promising/giving snacks for good behavior)	A
Mealtime discussions	Talking about healthy food	Staff talks about healthy foods with the children (e.g., which vegetables they like)	A

^a Answering scales: A: 5-point Likert scale ranging from never (1) to always (5); B: No (0) vs. Yes (1).