How To Promote Healthy Eating In Child Care

With Australian childhood obesity rates rising, we must improve the nutrition of our children and help them develop healthier eating habits. For children who receive most of their daily dietary intake at childcare then this is the ideal setting to promote healthy eating and good nutrition. It is much easier to lay the principles for lifelong good health and wellbeing practices in early childhood. So, how can you help? Let’s explore what you can do.

Getting Involved

Whether it is helping to tend the vegetable garden, picking healthy foods when shopping, choosing ingredients to cook with, or helping with the food preparation and cooking, involving your child gives them a sense of control and belonging. They also experience a sense of pride that comes with contributing. So, name the dish they helped with after them and make a big deal of their contribution. Every bit of positive reinforcement helps empower them and gives them confidence – just what they need for trying new things.

New Foods

The idea of trying something new can be intimidating, so only serve a small portion of one new food along with something the child loves. Encourage them to just ‘try it’ and praise them for any effort they make, even if they didn’t eat it all or claim they don’t like it. Be patient with the child, it can take a while for them to be comfortable with new foods. Cutting foods into fun shapes and smaller sizes can encourage children to ‘just try it’. Children learn from the adults around them so make sure everyone has at least a little taste.

Talk Food

While you are choosing food, growing it, preparing it, and eating it discuss where it comes from and its nutritional value. Discuss the different tastes and textures, what they like and don’t like. By asking questions you can introduce new foods more often, that have similar tastes and textures to foods you know your child likes, and be more gradual with foods they are less likely to enjoy. You can talk about how unhealthy foods can negatively affect the body, but make sure that mealtimes are a positive experience.

Relaxed and Social

It is hard to build a healthy relationship to food if mealtimes are tense and unhappy. So, try to keep conversations light, joyful, and build a positive experience around food. We often eat in groups, making mealtimes a social setting where children can build on their social skills while making healthy nutritional choices.

In a busy household it can be hard to find the time to promote healthy eating the way it can be done at childcare. So, when you are looking for childcare in your area – perhaps you are in Marsden Park, try Childcare Marsden Park. Or, if you live somewhere else then change out Marsden Park for your suburb and you can find out what sort of nutrition policy the childcare providers in your area offer. Give your child their best start and help promote healthy eating in childcare.