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Sharing Meals

Eating together as a family can promote both family bonding and good nutrition. Overall, the parents of 95.5 percent of children report that their families ate together on at least one day during the previous week, and those that did eat together did so on an average of 5 days in the week before the survey.

In general, the likelihood of sharing meals and the number of shared meals per week does not vary substantially by socio-demographic categories.

Graph: children sharing meals with their families

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This chartbook is based on data from the National Survey of Children's Health. Suggested citation: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau. The National Survey of Children's Health 2003. Rockville, Maryland: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2005.