Childcare and Healthy Eating

Childcare and Healthy Eating

by JOEVER WENCESLAO


With your child in child care, there are many things you might be hoping he/she takes away from the experience. There are the lessons that will be carried throughout life, and healthy eating is one of them. Not only you want your children to learn about the importance of healthy eating, but also you want your children to practice eating healthy.

Below are some suggestions that your child care provider to promote for healthy eating in your children.

More than graham crackers

Help build self-esteem and teach good eating habits by allowing children to plan, prepare and serve simple nutritional snacks. For example, create smiling faces using rice cakes and cheese. Introduce new foods in small portions to encourage children to taste their creations.

Integrate learning activities

Use seed catalogs and real vegetables. Children can conduct a taste-test on different raw vegetables and cooked vegetables. Then they can discuss the nutritional value of each vegetable. The children can also work together to make vegetable soup and create a labels for their own soup cans.

Learn about different cultures

Discuss at mealtimes how factors such climate help shape food habits. Choose the cultural heritage of one or more children as for the theme of a day’s meals and snacks.

Foster Creativity

Under adult supervision, young children can bake their own whole breads. Make fun of it by shaping the dough into different animal shapes.

Visit a local farm or farmers market

this type of outing will put the children in touch with local surroundings and create awareness of how food is grown and sold in a supermarket. If your child is unable to take a field trip, maybe a local farmer could speak about the vegetables and fruits on his farm.

Seeing is believing

Trade some of the unhealthy plastic foods in toy kitchens with replicas of vegetables and fruits, wedges of cheese and bread loaves. Better yet, replace the unhealthy foods in your real refrigerator with plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits. Lessons about healthy foods will “STICK” more when eat healthy too!

Parents, caregivers, teachers should work together to establish an understanding of how best to meet child’s nutritional needs. Teaching the children to eat moderately and wisely is an investment in the future and important.

Source from http://www.amazines.com/Family_and_Parenting/article_detail.cfm/919968?articleid=919968