“It’s our polite nudge in the ribs to help you and your team stay organised and on task.”
This week’s subject is: Promoting healthy eating.
Element 2.1.3: Healthy eating and physical activity are promoted and appropriate for each child.
What strategies does your service implement to support families to make best practice, nutritious choices for their child and make healthy eating a part of their everyday lives?
For many parents, supporting and promoting a healthy diet for their children can be challenging, as they often face several barriers that can make it difficult to consistently provide nutritious meals and snacks, including time constraints, cost, fussy eaters and limited knowledge and understanding about nutrition.
Services can support families to make choices for the benefit, health and wellbeing of their children and family.Services have a responsibility to provide families with current information and resources to support them to become better equipped to make choices that support the health and nutrition of their family.
In a world where fast food chains, pre-packaged, sugary and convenient snacks and meals seem to be around every corner, promoting healthy eating habits in families has never been more important. Encouraging children and adults alike to make nutritious food choices not only improves physical health but also supports mental well-being and overall quality of life. With childhood obesity rates on the rise and diet-related illnesses becoming increasingly prevalent, now is the time for families to prioritise their health and well-being through healthy eating and regular physical activity.
The benefits of healthy eating extend far beyond physical health. A balanced diet supports cognitive function, improves mood, boosts energy levels, and enhances overall well-being. By establishing healthy eating habits early on, parents can set their children up for a lifetime of good health.
It’s important to share your Nutrition policy with families regularly (attached to your Newsletter, at enrolment and whenever updates are made). Include current, relevant health and fitness information in your:
-
- Weekly/monthly newsletter
- Enrolment package
- Parent information/resource area
- Information sharing apps
- Menu/food or resources section of your Service website
Provide families with updated information about the menu. Invite and encourage input and feedback:
-
- Have a detailed menu that highlights the nutritional value in the foods listed
- Have a checklist next to or on the back of the menu to mark off a source of food from each food group for each meal offered and share this with families
- Publish and display the weekly menu
- Ensure the menu is updated and parents are notified when changes are made to the menu
- Select and promote a recipe of the week/month from your menu & provide copies of the recipe to families
- Include nutritional information about the development of the menu with links to reputable sources
- Regularly provide families with information about nutritious (and convenient) meal and snack ideas to provide at home or in their lunch boxes (when attending a service not providing food, or for when “on the go”).
Invite parents to provide input on the menu (asking parents, a specific question will encourage responses):
-
- Post the menu on your service’s social media page/s or information sharing app and invite feedback
- Survey children about their favourite menu options and share results with families
- Conduct a nutritional practice survey, inviting families to provide feedback on the menu/food offered
Make healthy eating/lifestyle a part of your program and promote these experiences with families:
-
- Consider starting a breakfast club or weekly cooking experience with a focus on cooking with natural products and fresh produce
- Create a food or fruit and vegetable alphabet display
- Plant herbs or vegetables at your service
- Ask for recipes from families (to cook with children and share the recipe with families)
Resources for Services:
Healthy eating games & activities
Healthy lifestyle programs for schools
Introducing new foods to children in education and care services
Resources for families:
Healthy School Lunchbox Planner
Get up & Grow Resources for families
Healthy Lunchboxes- Fact Sheet
Within System7 go to Quality Area 2/ Module 14 to submit self-assessment notes and if required, open a QIP issue if you identify any areas of improvement.
The Childcare Centre Desktop has a range of resources to assist services with healthy lifestyle. These include Nutrition Food Safety Policy, Menu Planning Checklist, Menu template, Nutritional Practice Survey, Nutritional Practices Audit and much more.
Resources, NQS Element, Regulation and System7 links
Childcare Centre Desktop – Childcare Centre Desktop
National Quality Standard – QA 2/ 2.1.3- Healthy lifestyle
National Regulations – 78, 79, 80, 168
System7 Module – QA 2/ Module 14
If you have any questions send us a note via the Contact page here!
