August 2013: Question 3
Healthy foods often have a bad reputation among young children, especially those who are picky eaters. What education strategies would you use to promote a positive attitude toward nutritious foods in this population? What activities would you suggest to involve them in choosing their own foods in a fun way?
posted by Aria Drexler @ 9:34 PM
18 comments
18 Comments:
I would use color as a point of interest; most veggies are bright in color and children like color. I would encourage them to color, paint, sculpt with Play Doh the veggie of the month. The children that like the veggie would get to wear a “I like broccoli” sticker on their clothes. The staff would “talk up” the veggie at every opportunity. The picky eaters would hopefully get on the veggie train and join in.
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I agree with Joy that color should be the focus. Maybe a giant rainbow could be hung on the wall and then the kids stick a picture of a fruit or vegetable on the appropriate color. If a child tries a new fruit or veggie, they would get a giant sticker on them of that color. Everyone throughout the day could ask what he or she tried. Everyday there would be a couple new fruits or veggies that the kids could try if they wanted. Hopefully the kids would be excited everyday to see what the new foods are.
Having family style meals where the child gets to choose which food items to take and how much is important for the child's growth and relationship with food. Also, having children help in the preparation of meals is a fun way for them to feel involved and to increase their likelihood of trying a food. Coloring opportunities for children the incorporate healthy food items or having theme meals with various healthy food items may be a fun way to get the children to try new foods. Having a story with snack time or allowing the children to assemble their own snack with each food item symbolizing something may be fun for the children. Getting the children as involved as possible will increase their openness to trying unfamiliar food items.
I am loving everyone's ideas! Very specific and creative. (Play Doh yeah!) Color as a point of interest is great, as we know when food manufacturers go out of their way to brightly color food and appeal to kids. Why not use natural colors to appeal to them? I am excited just reading about how often these kids would talk about veggies :]
Keeping the education simple and fun will be the key in this situation. Most kids will not eat a fruit or vegetable just because you say "it is good for them." I think that if you make a game of it, you may get the kids to eat more a greater variety of healthy foods. A game that I think would be fun for the kids is giving them points for eating a balances and colorful plate of fruit, vegetables, and grains. They will get bonus points for trying a new food. Kids like games and competition so I think this would be fun for them.
Sarah Swanson said...
I think planting a garden, or possibly doing an activity where the kids could take care of their own small plant would be a good way for them to learn about and become interested in veggies. We could discuss the many ways the veggies can be prepared and also have a day where we prepare the veggies they have been taking care of.
In a smaller day care setting, I would have the children help create the meals. Therefore they are involved and understand how the food was prepared. This could promote them to want to try the food. In a large day care setting, this would not be possible.
Instead, I would let them play with their food. Build with carrots, make a forrest with broccoli. And I would also provide tasty dips for the vegetables and give them fun names like lava dip for melted cheese.
I like Alyssa's idea about having a story to go along with the healthy food. That might encourage the child try to food or increase how much they like it.
I think an activity could be made by discussing what they have at home and what is their favorite fruits and vegetables. They would draw their favorites and then would have to choose one F+V they haven't tried before. The next week we could have a sampling game where the kids blindly taste a F+V, have to guess what it is and then draw new pictures of the new F+V they tried and their new favorites. I think getting them excited about F+V is a great way to have them start choosing these as snacks and as part of their meals.
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I like the idea of having color as a focus, and again, a garden. Also, I agree with Courtney that if the facility is small, having the kids help prepare the meals would be a great way to get them involved with their meal planning.
As mentioned before, involving the children in the preparation and selection of vegetables would hopefully help them overcome their pickiness. Planting a garden and allowing the children to be hands on through the entirety of the harvest might be helpful as well.
When dealing with children it is important to make things fun and attention grabbing. Using the color aspect of vegetables is a great way to reach out to children. Also, as others have suggested is creating games for them to play helps keep them excited.
I would encourage a 2-bite rule and emphasize that all foods have something to offer. Some have more positive things to offer (i.e., healthier foods) and others not so much (i.e., unhealthy or junk foods). Communicating the message that choosing more healthy foods offers more for growing little bodies and that it takes at least 10 times to like a new food would be key to each activity.
Specific activities that I would suggest could reflect current growing seasons and incorporate the help of local farmers and gardeners through farm visits and talks.
Helping create meals and sharing them family-style were other great activities that others shared that I would also be interested in incorporating in my education strategies.
Courtney, awesome idea about ways to get the children involved, especially playing with their food. Kids learn by doing and by playing, so this might be the most effective way to get them interested in eating veggies. When I was at CSU, there was a master's student doing a project with the school lunch programs at areas schools. She did survey panels with children asking them their opinions about the foods that were offered, and having them suggest creative names for each vegetable side offered. She had success with creating greater appeal and increasing vegetable consumption just by getting the children involved and having more creative names, in addition to changing the placement of the veggies in line.
To expand on the story-telling idea, day cares could bring back the felt story boards (remember those?) using veggie cutouts to tell a story and have the kids involved in telling that story.
Lynetta, I love the idea of doing farm visits. So many kids don't know where their food comes from, and knowing where your food comes from creates familiarity and a bond with what you are choosing to eat I think.
I like Alyssa's comment about giving the child choice regarding what the family eats for vegetables at meals.
I also like Beth's idea of making a game out of it. That would be an encouraging way to promote nutrition.
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