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Fruit and vegetable household availability and consumption in early elementary school children

National fruit (F) and vegetable (V) consumption in young children is lower than recommended. Better understanding of the environmental and lifestyle factors that predict the household availability and intake of F & V in children can inform interventions that promote change. The purpose of this study was to determine baseline predictors of F & V availability and intake in a sample of racially diverse children participating in a large community‐based intervention. Survey data collected during the fall of 2003 from the parents of 456 children in Grades 1‐3 (53% F; 64% Caucasian) were analyzed using linear regression. Households had 19.1 ± 6.2 types (fresh, frozen or canned) of F & V available, while only 18.7% of children consumed five or more servings of F & V per day. Children viewed 2.0 ± 1.1 hrs of television/day and 35% of children ate dinner while viewing TV either “sometimes” or “a lot”. F & V household availability was positively predicted by whether the mother was non‐US born (p=0.001) when controlling for maternal education, marital status, and sibling size. Daily servings of F & V consumed by a child were higher for females, children who ate with a parent “most of the time”, those with lower television time, and in households with a higher F & V availability when adjusted for maternal education, race, grade in school, and other covariates (p<0.001). Results demonstrate the importance of F & V availability within the home, the positive influence of parents, and the negative impact of the media on promoting consumption.