{"id":19135,"date":"2024-06-11T02:18:36","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T02:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.entreeearlyyears.com.au\/?p=19135"},"modified":"2024-06-11T02:28:22","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T02:28:22","slug":"promoting-healthy-eating-in-early-years-settings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.entreeearlyyears.com.au\/promoting-healthy-eating-in-early-years-settings\/","title":{"rendered":"Promoting Healthy Eating in Early Years Settings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The importance of healthy eating in the Early Years Sector<\/strong><\/p>\n

Learning about living a healthy lifestyle in the early years promotes a sense of well-being and confidence in children. With the guidance of parents and educators, children can learn to take more responsibility for their health and well-being as they grow. Educators have an opportunity to help lay the foundations of knowledge. Below are some suggestions on how this can be achieved successfully in an early years setting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plan well-thought-out and varied menus<\/strong><\/p>\n

Planning menus helps ensure enough time to consider all children’s nutritional needs. It also gives enough time to cater for allergies and dietary requirements and consider the variety. Ensuring a wide variety of foods is on offer will keep it interesting and help children develop a more expansive palate. <\/span><\/p>\n

Allow children to trust their bodies<\/strong><\/p>\n

Children are born intuitive eaters, meaning they instinctively know how much their bodies need to grow, learn, and play. If educators and parents support this, this intuitive self-regulation of food helps promote mindful eating as children grow into adults. Providing a supportive and encouraging environment for variety and choice can promote a positive experience for children developing their confidence with different foods.<\/span><\/p>\n

Invite parents to be involved<\/strong><\/p>\n

Allowing parents and caregivers to be involved in the early years setting can help promote the healthy message in the home. Educators can inform parents about children’s meal experiences and then share recipes for replicating and enjoying them at home. Another positive way to promote parent involvement is to ask parents for feedback on the menu provided for their children.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let children take responsibility<\/strong><\/p>\n

Various experiences can be part<\/span> of the educational program that allows children to learn and explore a healthy lifestyle. Children can help grow vegetables or herbs and then pick, prepare, and eat them. Other activities involve planning a healthy meal by writing a list and cooking together. Allowing children to be hands-on and involved has many teachable moments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Make it fun<\/strong><\/p>\n

Educators participating in mealtimes can make it a social and enjoyable experience for the children. <\/span>It also allows the children<\/span>\u00a0to observe good role-modelling, where educators can demonstrate being open-minded about trying different foods.<\/span> Meal times are <\/span>a wonderful<\/span> opportunity for educators to communicate an overall positive message about looking after our bodies through nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Connecting Teams, Talent & Educators\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you for reading our latest blog. If you are a candidate, click to view our\u202f<\/span>Permanent Jobs<\/span><\/a>\u202for explore our latest\u202f<\/span>Temporary Opportunities<\/span><\/a>.\u202f\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are a client looking to find your next\u202f<\/span>permanent or temporary\u202f<\/span><\/a>staff member, Entr\u00e9e Early Years can help.\u202f<\/span>Hire or Book<\/span><\/a>\u202fEarly Childhood Staff today!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reference\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/theeducationhub.org.nz\/how-to-support-positive-food-environments-in-early-childhood-settings\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teaching healthy eating habits early on moulds not only the nutritional choices but also the overall well-being and confidence of young children. In early educational settings, this journey towards healthy living can be effectively nurtured with the collaborative efforts of educators and parents…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":19139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entreeearlyyears.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entreeearlyyears.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entreeearlyyears.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entreeearlyyears.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entreeearlyyears.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19135"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.entreeearlyyears.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19142,"href":"https:\/\/www.entreeearlyyears.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19135\/revisions\/19142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entreeearlyyears.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/19139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entreeearlyyears.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entreeearlyyears.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entreeearlyyears.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}