"How people eat is often as important as what they eat," observe Sharon Bergen and Rachel Robertson in their guidebook, Healthy Children, Healthy Lives: The Wellness Guide for Early Childhood Programs. They continue...
"In the past meals took time to prepare and families gathered around a table to eat them together. As they ate their food, they spent time talking. Often this was a bonding experience. It also helped people stay healthy. By eating food they had prepared themselves, they knew what ingredients went into it. Eating together encouraged eating slowly, which aided digestion and helped them know if they were full or still hungry. Today the average family's schedules and the convenience of restaurant meals have decreased the time people spend preparing and eating food. Further, restaurant foods are often high in additives, sugars, and fats. These ingredients can affect immediate and long-term health and often lead to overeating and weight gain.
"Teachers can help children read their own bodies' cues so they know how full or hungry they are. To that end, children should be offered food at regular time intervals throughout the day. Additionally, children should not be required to eat when they aren't hungry. They should not develop a habit of snacking throughout the day, either. Food should be used to give their bodies energy. It should not be treated as a reward or a punishment. Children need food for energy and most of them eagerly choose to eat at allotted times."
When you order a copy of the new Exchange Turn Key Training DVDS, Preventing Obesity and Promoting Wellness in Early Childhood Settings, you will receive as a bonus one free copy of Healthy Children, Healthy Lives.
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Displaying All 2 CommentsUnited States
Learning that you've eaten just the right amount of food begins in infancy. Babies who get fed promptly when their cues signal hunger find pleasure in knowing when to eat and how much, fed by a responsive, respectful, attuned caregiver. Magda Gerber's one wish for babies anywhere on earth is that they not get fed one morsel of food more than they want to eat. Her preventive EducaringTM Approach needs to be the guideline for Healthy Children's Lives. Obesity could be prevented in addition to all the other mental and physical wellness outcomes. www.rie.org
ece consultant
Dallas, TX, United States
My children in my 4s and 5s classrooms respectively, set the table, self-served themselves, and cleared the table. So many learning opportunities are there! I took anecdotal notes like crazy during that time; interpersonal skiils, language skills, all of it shows up. The teacher creates the 'feeling tone' of supporting 'their' eating time, and sharing and participating in a 50/50 shared partnership way...I always looked forward to that time of small-group togetherness...:)
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