How to Promote Healthy Food Habits at Daycare and School?

Importance of Healthy Habits in Early Childhood

Incorporating healthy eating habits in the primitive years lays the foundation for a strong future. You may all agree to this! So, here are a few tips to foster healthy eating habits at daycare:

Nutritious Food Choices 

By introducing children to healthy eating from a young age, they will become addicted to healthy food and are likely to develop healthy eating habits for life.

Family-Style Eating

Encourage children to eat lunch with their peers. This will strengthen their social skills and communication skills.

Table Manners

The table is a great place to learn and practice manners. Children learn to say 'please' and 'thank you.'

Little Gardeners

Children will be more inclined towards eating fruits and vegetables if they are involved in planting trees. By involving them in gardening, you can teach them about the nutritional values of the plants and how to be gentle towards them.

Hook to Cook

Kids of this age are too small to cook, but they can participate in meal planning. How?? You can show them picture books of fruits and vegetables and let them decide what they want to eat. They would look forward to eating what they have chosen.

Fostering a Positive Food Environment

Educators have a strong influence on a child. The food environment you create will have a lifelong impact on a child's mind.

Strategies to create a healthy food environment at daycare:

Sit with Children and Eat

Eat your food with children as they observe and learn. Seeing you eating healthy food, they would be inspired, too.

Avoid Distractions

Disrupt all distractions like TV and phones while eating. Create a relaxing atmosphere.

Set a Meal Routine

Offer snacks and food at a fixed time with the same daily intervals so that their body clocks ask for it automatically.

Allow Them to Eat More If They Want to

As they are in a growing stage, there might be days when they would be asking for more servings.

Creative Approaches to Healthy Eating

There are various activities through which kids can learn about nutrition and health:

Dress Up Days

Children can come dressed up as their favourite fruit or vegetable and discuss it.

Printing Fun

You can conduct different printing activities with fruits and vegetables, like lady fingerprinting and onion printing. Further, make them talk about the used fruits or vegetables. Have those cheerful but healthy discussions with them.

Edible Art

Take food cutouts from magazines and old books. Have a meaningful conversation about that food item while the child cuts it.

School Nutrition Programmes and Guidelines

Teaching about healthy food and promoting balanced nutrition in school has numerous benefits:

• Children will realise and understand the importance of a healthy diet.
• The kids will stay motivated to make healthier decisions.
• They will be encouraged to have proper meals at the appropriate time, which will lead to increasing their activity level.
• Nutritional knowledge will pave the way for improved well-being.
• Better health and better outcomes in terms of academics and extracurricular activities.
• Regularity in school will increase because of low absenteeism.

Nutrition guidelines and standards have been recommended internationally to ensure that school meals align with children's nutrition needs and are adequate for their context.

Parents and Caregivers should follow the same tips, as mentioned above, to create a positive food environment and make children understand the importance of healthy meals.

Celebrating Healthy Food Choices the Child Makes

We all look forward to appreciation, awards and rewards for our achievements and efforts. 

The young learners are no different. Appreciate them! Doing so helps in:

• Boosting their self-esteem.
• Instilling a positive approach towards nutrition.
• Building a healthy relationship with food, encouraging them to eat nutritious food.

It would help if you rewarded them with stickers, smiley badges, chef caps, and certificates to motivate little learners.

Healthy Eating Comes With Its Own Set Of Challenges 

Nothing comes easy. Everything has its share of hurdles. Let's look into the challenges faced by daycares and schools while promoting nutrition:

Limited Meal Time

Daycare and schools have limited breaks, and children usually need more eating time.

Coping with Picky Eaters

Some children are fussy and are not easy to feed. It may get complicated, but keep patient!

Availability of Unhealthy Snacks

Parents sometimes send unhealthy snacks, which becomes difficult for the facilitators to handle.

Peer Influence

If any child brings unhealthy snacks, other kids might demand the same.

Managing Fussy Eaters at the Daycare or School

Not all kids are the same. If there are easygoing kids, there are fussy eaters, too. It takes extra effort to deal with picky eaters.

Here is how you could do so:

Hide and Seek

You can hide fruits and vegetables under smoothies and sauces.

Shape Fun

Cut fruits and vegetables in different shapes, which will be exciting for the kids.

The Salad Terrain

Make a colourful palette of fruit salad and serve! The vibrancy factor will attract your little ones!

Veggie Toasties

Make relishing toast and sandwiches using veggies. 

All in all, patience is the key. Be patient with fussy eaters.

Overcoming Barriers While Building Healthy Eating Habits Among Children in Daycare

If you run a daycare or a school, you can combat the challenges by:

• Fixing the meal menus.
• Allotting one day for party food.
• Guiding the parents about rules and regulations regarding lunch boxes.
• Taking the children for farm visits.

To Summarise

From physical play to interactive learning, daycare and schools offer an active space for children, ensuring healthy eating habits are imbibed. Providing children with nutritious food options allows them to learn, play and focus effectively to reach their goals!