Section 4: Healthy Food and Nutrition
Based on current trends and realities, it is clear that adults
committed to children's healthy growth and development must advocate for
high-quality nutrition, which begins with a strong foundational knowledge of
children's nutritional needs, developmental stages, and dietary guidelines.
For your course project this week, you will create a fourth
section that provides important information on nutrition and age-appropriate
foods for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers and that will serve as an
educational tool for adults who work with young children and their family
members.
Use the following guidelines:
·
Summarize why good nutrition and eating habits are so important to
children in each age group. Cite evidence from Chapter 6 in your text and/or other resources to support your claims.
·
Refer to Chapter 8 in your course text and explain why adults
should actively help children develop healthy eating habits and at least two
ways this can be accomplished.
·
Provide three nutritious recipes that family members can prepare
with preschoolers and explain the nutritional value of each. (To locate
recipes, look through the various suggested Web sites or do research as
needed.) Offer strategies and suggestions to make cooking together an enjoyable
learning experience for children.
There are
a number of reasons why good nutrition and eating habits are so important to a
child in whatever age group that they are in. the first of the reasons why good
nutrition and eating habits are so important is to keep away diseases such as
scurvy and Rickets disease (Robertson, 2013). The next reason that good
nutrition is so important for children of all age groups is because it keeps
strong bones and immune system healthy to keep away illnesses. This shows that
you need to take in the right nutrition so that you can have healthy children
to have a healthy future.
This is
where adults come into play because if the children do not learn to eat
properly from the adults then they do not know any better. I would have to say
that adults should help children develop healthy eating habits by offering
children a variety of foods in different shapes as well as different colors.
This would also include the offering the child foods in which are easy to eat
(Robertson, 2013). My son never wants to eat anything that is not bright in
color and something they he can not pick up. Since he has not mastered using a
spoon he wants something that he can eat by the handful and is very colorful
because something he loves is something that is bright in color, basically if
it catches his eye he will eat it. The next way in which adults can help a
child to eat with good food habits is by making sure that the food is served at
room temperature because children tend to shy away from food in which is too
hot or too cold (Robertson, 2013). This is something that I have experienced
firsthand because my son has learned that if food is too hot he can not eat it
without waiting for it to cool and then you are more than likely going to lose
his attention to eating and he will just play with it once it cools.
There are many
different recipes out there for preschoolers that is healthy food as well. One of the recipes that I have used is for a
grilled pita and it is very nutritious. It is made with a half of cup of low
fat cream cheese, a teaspoon of chives, a teaspoon of parsley, three to four
cups of veggies, and four whole wheat pitas (Nemours, 2013). There are many
nutritious values in this and they are Vitamin A, Iron, Vitamin C, and Calcium.
The next recipe that I suggest for preschoolers is Lucky Lettuce Cups. Lucky
Lettuce Cups are many of 2 tablespoons of safflower oil, three-fourths cup of
boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into one inch cubes, four scallions
slice thin, one piece of fresh ginger peeled and grated, two large cloves of
garlic minced, cup of zucchini cut into one inch cubes, cup of red bell peppers
in one inch cubes, cup of yellow bell pepper in one inch cubes, cup of lightly
salted roasted peanuts, cup of brown rice, tablespoon of brown sugar,
tablespoon of soy sauce, one and a half teaspoons of rice wine vinegar, half
teaspoon of salt, fourth teaspoon of chile sauce, and a head of butter lettuce
washed and separated (Nemours, 2013). The nutritious values that are in this
are Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium, and Iron. The third recipe that I have
chosen is Fun Fruit Kabobs and they have one apple, one banana, third of a cup
of red seedless grapes, third of a cup of green seedless grapes, two-thirds cup
of pineapple chunks, cup of nonfat yogurt, and a fourth cup of dried and
shredded coconut (Nemours, 2013). In this recipe you have Protein, Vitamin C,
and many more because fruit is so good for you. The one thing that you can do
in all of these is to have your preschooler combine the ingredients and in
cases put the fruit on the stick or whatever you choose to use.
Megan, thanks for the great post! I agree that the food we offer young children should taste good, look good, and attract their attention. Often, it is more about the way the food is presented than the food itself. One of the classic examples is calling broccoli "dinosaur trees." I told my aunt about this and she started using it in her daycare. She said it worked like a charm! I have also found that cutting food up too small is sometimes not helpful! Don't get me wrong, food needs to be cut up small for infants, but when it is too small, they have a hard time grasping it and eating it, like you said. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHello, Megan. It is great that you mentioned the bright colors and room temperature foods. My son hates when food is too mushy or too hot to eat. He tends to be a picky eater so I am always trying to find ways to get him to try healthy foods and learn to enjoy them. I am going to try to make the grilled vegetable pitas and see if he likes them. Thank you for sharing. Kathy
ReplyDeleteYour recipes look yummy and I plan to try them soon with the daycare kids. When I feed my son he is really picky about texture and if the pieces are to small or to big like you guys have mention, he eats better if lets say it is a bun, he rather have the whole bun and eat off it reather then cutting it into pieces. Great job!
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