Importance Of Healthy Eating Habits In Early Childhood And The Role Of Childcare Services

ECH130-Health and Wellbeing

The Need for Balanced Healthy Habits in Early Childhood

Early childhood is an important time for the establishment of the healthy eating patterns. This is why there is a need for a balanced healthy habits to be developed in children since this provides the children with the nutrients that are required for them to grow. Such a healthy should contain daily meals thrice a day which should involve the following groups of food like the carbohydrates, proteins, fruits, vegetables and others like the dairy products, some amount of fat as well as sugar. The parents who are able to make their children adopt healthy eating from an early age are able to have a positive effect on their children’s dietary habits in the later life (Dodds et al. 2014). Researches have shown that instilling good eating habits in children helps in building a healthy body weight, building a strong immune function, having a better brain function and others (Press 2014). Therefore this paper aims to focus on the importance of the child care professionals involved in the child care services who play a significant role in the healthy eating habits of the children which makes the child develop positive attitudes towards the good food choices.

Evidently, childcare services plays a significant part in the childcare and the early year of juvenile education thus affecting the families and the communities in a significant manner. These services are also involved in providing opportunities for establishing child development along with the provision of healthy nutrition to these children.  Examples of early childcare services include the arrangements like the long day-care along with family day-care, kindergarten, pre-schools in addition to the outside-school-hours which helps to focus on the childcare and education (Cole, Vidgen and Cleland 2017). Reports suggest that in Australia, the number of children who attend the child care centres are almost over 630,000 belonging to the age group of 0-4. This number increases after the child gets admitted to the pre-school as is reported in the year of 2015 (Lockeridge et al.  2015). In the Australian context, the early childhood Australia focuses on the children’ wellbeing and hygiene. For this there is a need for the development of good eating patterns which will help to establish a healthy life. There are several guidelines that are provided by the government along with other organizations which mainly help the parents of these children to make good choices regarding the food and drink these children take. Changing of eating habits in children in to healthy eating is understood to have a long lasting effect (Gerritsen et al. 2017). The importance of the good food choices is well documented in terms of an early childhood development which includes the early life experiences which in turn will affect the later life of the children. Although most of the Australian children are thriving, however there have been rising concerns related to the issues such as overweight and obesity. There are also issues like the macro- and micronutrient deficiencies, dental caries and food safety, in addition to an increased dependence on formal child care. It has been reported that there is a significance of the food literacy skills as well which helps the child care professionals to take care of the eating behaviours of the children (Yoong et al. 2014). 

Positive Effect of Healthy Eating Habits on Children’s Dietary Habits

The nutritional guidelines that have been developed in Australia and also internationally help in the provision of the recommendations on the type of the food and the amount of the food that is good for the health. The  NHMRC or National Health and Medical Research Council developed IFG or Infant Feeding Guidelines and ADG or Australian Dietary Guidelines the which provides suggestions for these children depending on the age group and the also across the full day. The government of Australia established the Get Up & Grow: Healthy Eating and Physical Activity for Early Childhood which assisted the ECEC services for the implementation of the guidelines (Australian Government, Department of Health and Aging 2013).

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it is estimated that there are about 3.8 million children aged 0–12 years in Australia, who attend the early childhood services. The choices of the services includes the long day care (LDC), Family Day Care (FDC), In-Home Care (IHC), Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) and the Occasional care. For the chidren who were aged 0-6 years, for them the primary source of formal care was in 2011 who was LDC and with 45 per cent of children who were aged 2–3 years when they accessed this type of service. According to the National Quality Framework Quarterly Snapshot Q1 2015 which reported that there were about 14,827 approved ECEC services which operated throughout Australia among which there were 13,908 were centre-based services which included LDC and OSHC services and 919 were FDC services (Betterhealth.vic.gov.au. 2018). 

The guidelines for the nutrition and health standards of Australia includes the Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), which provides the national guidelines for the sake of childcare covering the areas of care (Nutritionaustralia.org. 2018). 

Some of the areas that it includes are as follows:

The issues that has been covered, include:

• Respect – showing reverence to every children
• Environment– provision of a pleasant and a  culturally suitable ambience for children during their  mealtimes encouraging social interaction and learning
• Culture– providing meals, food and drinks that are culturally appropriate.
• Nutrition – promotion of  healthy eating habits
• Hygiene – having trained staffs for  correct handling of food and hygiene.

In terms of the area of nutrition, food that is provided to these children plays an important role for the growth and the development of the children and also development of the eating habits in future. Considering the long day childcare centres, menus should aim to fulfil the daily nutritional requirement of the child.  There should be a variety of food options provided to the children like cereals, vegetables, fruits, fish, lean meat, chicken, milks, cheeses and yoghurts, and  a range of flavours and tastes should be included, which is appropriate to the developing stages of different age group children (Seward et al. 2016). The care professionals should be able to encourage the children to drink enough water along with milk throughout the day. Although sweetened drinks like  juices and cordials are not that necessary. 

Significance of Childcare Services in Childcare and Early Year Education

It is also the responsibility of the childcare services to provide support and opportunities to the families so that they can provide breast milk to the children who are under their care. The professionals involved in childcare should be able to provide support for the development and for the implementation of clear policies along with the procedures in order to store and provide the expressed breast milk for the children who are under their care. The local council health departments is able to provide help and also is able to provide advice related to food safety in childcare centres (Gerritsen et al. 2017).

• For provision of proper care to the children, the childcare professionals might undergo some training programmes related to healthy eating and menu planning for long day care. This includes: children’s nutrition requirements (1-5 years)
• developing menus that meet the Australian Dietary Guidelines
• healthy food and drink ideas for young children
• ingredient swaps
• promoting healthy eating to children
• Dealing with challenges, such as food allergies and budgeting.
• Promoting healthy eating through learning and play (ecu.edu.au. 2018).

According to the government nutrition guidelines for young children, it focuses on the eating patterns and also the food that is required for the optimum health and the growth of the children and which will also present the nutritional deficiency. Nutrition guidelines for young children also focus on the development of eating behaviours. Researches that has been conducted has consistently shown that the dietary patterns and nutritional habits develop early in life, which is due to the diversity of the food that leads to the increase in the acceptability of the food along with the repeated exposure that helps in the improvement of the preferences of taste along with liking (Seward et al. 2016). 

From this study it could be deduced that childhood nutrition is of vital importance for the metal, physical, social and emotional development of the children. Although it is seen that the Australian children are thriving, in spite of that there are several issues like obesity, overweight, nutrient deficiency and others. In addition to this there are other habits as well along with the preferences which are developed in childhood and it happens to remain throughout the adulthood which affects the health in the later life. According to the new National Quality Framework (NQF), where the childcare professionals are expected to work towards a relevant childcare qualification which needs to incorporate some of the elements of training in nutrition. The study also entails that there is some emphasis on nutrition knowledge as well as training related to the food hygiene and preparation as well. 

References

 Australian Government, Department of Health and Aging 2013. Get up and grow: Healthy eating and physical activity guidelines for early childhood settings. https://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/EA1E1000D846F0AFCA25 7BF0001DADB3/$File/HEPA%20-%20A4%20Book%20-%20Directors%20Book%20-%20LR.pdf

Betterhealth.vic.gov.au. (2018). Childcare and healthy eating. [online] Available at: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/childcare-and-healthy-eating [Accessed 31 Dec. 2018].

Cole, A., Vidgen, H. and Cleland, P., 2017. Food provision in early childhood education and care services: Exploring how staff determine nutritional adequacy. Nutrition & Dietetics, 74(1), pp.105-110.

Dodds, P., Wyse, R., Jones, J., Wolfenden, L., Lecathelinais, C., Williams, A., Yoong, S.L., Finch, M., Nathan, N., Gillham, K. and Wiggers, J., 2014. Validity of a measure to assess healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices in Australian childcare services. BMC Public Health, 14(1), p.572.

Gerritsen, S., Dean, B., Morton, S.M. and Wall, C.R., 2017. Do childcare menus meet nutrition guidelines? Quantity, variety and quality of food provided in New Zealand Early Childhood Education services. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 41(4), pp.345-351.

Gerritsen, S., Dean, B., Morton, S.M. and Wall, C.R., 2017. Do childcare menus meet nutrition guidelines? Quantity, variety and quality of food provided in New Zealand Early Childhood Education services. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 41(4), pp.345-351.

Lockeridge, A., Innes-Hughes, C., O’Hara, B.J., McGill, B., and Rissel, C. 2015 Munch & Move: Evidence and evaluation summary. NSW Ministry of Health.

Myers, J., Gibbons, K., Arnup, S., Volders, E. and Naughton, G., 2015. Early childhood nutrition, active outdoor play and sources of information for families living in highly socially disadvantaged locations. Journal of paediatrics and child health, 51(3), pp.287-293.

Nutritionaustralia.org. (2018). Healthy menu planning in OSHC – WA | Nutrition Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.nutritionaustralia.org/wa/training-healthy-eating-and-menu-planning-oshc [Accessed 31 Dec. 2018].

Press, F., 2014. The state play in early childhood policy: A note from Australia. New Zealand Research in Early Childhood Education, (17), p.11.

Ro.ecu.edu.au. (2018). Edith Cowan University. [online] Available at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au [Accessed 31 Dec. 2018].

Seward, K., Wolfenden, L., Finch, M., Wiggers, J., Wyse, R., Jones, J., Gillham, K. and Yoong, S.L., 2016. Multistrategy childcare-based intervention to improve compliance with nutrition guidelines versus usual care in long day care services: a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. BMJ open, 6(6), p.e010786.

Yoong, S.L., Skelton, E., Jones, J. and Wolfenden, L., 2014. Do childcare services provide foods in line with the 2013 Australian Dietary guidelines? A cross?sectional study. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 38(6), pp.595-596.