Young children in daycare in California are getting into the habit of reaching for water to quench their thirst, according to research published in September 2014 by the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

The research, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, shows that more preschool-aged children have ready access to water during all activities, mealtimes and snacktimes, indoors and out, when they are in Head Start, private and public centers and licensed family home daycare.

“This is so important for child nutrition and obesity prevention,” said Lorrene Ritchie, the director of the UC Nutrition Policy Institute and the study's principal author. “We've learned from older children that many of them never drink plain water, so they're not used to it and don't like the taste.”

In fact, national surveys in the early 2000s found that, on any given day, 84 percent of 2- to 5-year-old children drank sugar-sweetened beverages like sodas, sports drinks and fruit punch. The calories amounted to 11 percent of the children's total energy intake. At the same time more than one-quarter of young children in the U.S. did not drink plain water on any given day.

“Humans evolved to drink water, so our bodies don't register very well the calories in juices, sodas and sweetened beverages,” Ritchie said. “Giving a child a cup of Hi-C, Capri Sun, SunnyD or other sweetened beverage is like setting a sugar bowl in front of them. It's sweet and goes down easy, but they're consuming calories very quickly without realizing it.”

Changing beverage preferences isn't a “silver bullet” cure for the obesity crisis, she said, but if there is one dietary factor that has had a significant impact on overweight and obesity, it is calories from sugary drinks.

In 2008, University of California researchers documented the types of beverages served to children in childcare settings. They found that one-fifth of the childcare providers served whole milk, 2 percent offered flavored milk, and 27 percent gave children juice more than once per day. A small fraction, about 8 percent, served sugar-sweetened beverages to the children. Only 28 percent always served water with meals and snacks, and 36 percent served no water at all.

“Fully one-quarter of children are already overweight or obese when they enter kindergarten,” Ritchie said. “It was clear from the research that we needed to focus on the beverages in childcare.”

The UC research informed the writing of Assembly Bill 2084 by Rep. Julia Brownley in early 2010. The measure passed, was signed by Gov. Brown and went into effect in January 2012. Also in 2010, Congress enacted legislation, based on UC and other research, that requires drinking water be available all day in childcare facilities that take part in the federally funded Child and Adult Care Food Program.

“The UC Nutrition Policy Institute's research was tracked provision by provision into groundbreaking state legislation,” said Kenneth Hecht, Nutrition Policy Institute coordinator. “NPI research is now the basis for the law of the land.”

After the state and federal laws went into effect, Ritchie and her research team embarked on a second study to determine the impact of the legislation on beverages served in childcare settings. At the time of the second survey, 77 percent of providers had self-serve water available indoors and 78 percent had it available outdoors. Nearly half of the providers served water with meals and snacks.

Children in programs following the new law have access to drinking water throughout the day and at meal and snack times. Children are no longer offered whole milk (after age 2), flavored milk or sugar-sweetened beverages and given no more than one glass of 100 percent juice each day.

“We've made great strides using research to inform policy, but there is still much to do to improve the nutrition of young children,” Ritchie said. “We are sticking with it.”