The topic Nutrition interests me because I work in an international school and have seen a lot of children having unhealthy snacks and food during the day. As working in an international school, I have met lots of busy families with parents constantly travelling along different countries and having to leave their children with nannies. When children come to school in the morning, they bring sweet treats such as chocolates, candies and all the other junk food including fast food and soda drinks. What I do is to take away all these unhealthy food, talk to the parents and/or nannies to make sure these kinds of food will not be brought to class anymore, and also send home copies of the school nutrition policy, information about food groups, as well as some examples of healthy food. I understand that not only parents and nannies should learn about healthy food choices, the children should also be responsible for what they eat. So I usually plan a food project once in a while to show and remind children the importance of healthy food.
NAEYC has an article called "The Food Friends - Encouraging Preschoolers to Try New Foods" providing a lot of useful information about children's nutrition and some strategies to encourage children eating healthy food. According to Birch (1998), "Children establish food preferences and dietary habits during the first six years of life" so it is very important to provide children with many opportunities to try different food at an early age. The article gives some useful strategies to encourage children to try new foods:
• Make food fun
• Keep offering new foods
• Be a good role model by eating new foods with children
• Let children choose new foods
• Help children learn about new foods
• Try offering one new food at a time
• Avoid forcing children to try new foods
Currently I'm offering an after school activity class about healthy food and these strategies work perfect for me. I especially agree that teachers need to be good role models when cooking with children because children are good observers and quick learners. I will implement these ideas into my activities to support children with eating healthy food.
Reference
Bellows, L. and Anderson J. (2006). The Food Friends: Encouraging Preschools to Try New Foods. Retrieved January 14, 2012 from http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200605/BellowsBTJ.pdf
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ReplyDeleteBecause everyone lives a fast paced life and our economy doesn’t seem to slow, promoting healthy food choices today for children is difficult. I have found many great resources on the USDA website http://www.choosemyplate.gov that I have used in monthly newsletter to families, in the classroom for child learning and for personal use as well. The company that I work for has menus that are developed by nutrition specialist that ensure we are meeting the criteria recommended by our state.
ReplyDeleteReference:
http://www.choosemyplate.gov (n.d.)
Hi Karie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you nutrition is a very important topic in Early Childhood today. When I taught I came acroos the same experiences as you with the types of food parents would bring in for meals and snacks. Lots of sugar, high fat foods, chips, fast food, and candy, among many other things. My favorite is one day a Mom dropped her child off and we were talking as we were talking her son was running in circles around the room like a maniac. She said" does he normally do this?" I said " nO not normally." She said" Hmm I guess I should not have let him eat birthday cake for breakfast." Really cake for breakfast? The sad thing is the Mom is a child psychologist. One thing I did in my curriculum was have a cooking day once a week with with the children. We talked about what they thought healthy and unhealthy foods were and what made them that way. Every week I made sure we made a healthy recipe for us to enjoy. By the end of the year I definitely saw changes in their eating habits for the better!
Hello.
ReplyDeleteYou have posted some great ideas ! Food should be fun and educational along with healthy.
All these posts are helpful and interesting ! thanks ladies !!
I applaud you for sponsoring an after school program about healthy eating habits.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely correct, nutrition is so important in promoting development. AS preschoolers get older their appetites decline because their growth has slowed. Though they eat less, there is still a need for a high-quality diet that include the same foods that adults need, but in smaller portions.