Transcript Slide 1

Nutrition
What Does Licensing Say?
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Handout
Internet site for standards:
http://www.tdprs.state.tx.us/Child_Care
/Child_Care_Standards_and_Regulation
s/pdf/final746.pdf
Causes of Childhood
Obesity
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Genetics
A medical condition that increases fat storage and weight gain
Medication that has weight gain as a side effect
Lack of exercise more commonly contributes to weight gain than
eating
Not recognizing (feeling satisfied), often due to adults overriding
cues
High fat and/or high calorie intake, due to exposure to highly
palatable foods
Cultural or family imperatives to overeat
Eating for non-nutritional reasons
rewarding with food
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consoling with food
eating out of boredom
eating to procrastinate
eating as a substitute for love
eating for entertainment
Nutritional Needs of Children
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Let’s look at serving size…what do you
think?
Handout on serving size
The Food Guide Pyramid!
Ericson’s Stages and Feeding
Children in Group Settings
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Take your handout or go to
http://iws.ccccd.edu/shirschy and the
section you are assigned and by poem,
song, or acting out teach us what we
should and shouldn’t do!
Principles for Feeding Children
in a Group Setting
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1. Adults should eat with children.
2. Adults choose what is served and
how it is served.
3. Children choose how much to eat.
4. Children need a variety of foods.
5. Children should serve themselves.
6. Adults set the feeding environment.
When Feeding Children in
Groups….
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PROVIDE SPACE
TRUST CHILDREN TO EAT AS MUCH AS THEY NEED
MAKE SURE ADULTS EAT WITH CHILDREN
FEED CHILDREN OFTEN
PROVIDE PRACTICE WITH CHILD SIZED UTENSILS
PROVIDE FOODS THAT CHALLENGE EATING SKILLS
LET CHILDREN SERVE THEMSELVES
SET THE ENVIRONMENT SO CHILDREN DO NOT
WAIT TOO LONG.
PRESENT FOOD THAT IS COMMONLY KNOWN TO
CHILDREN. RELATE NEW FOODS TO THOSE THE
CHILDREN ALREADY KNOW.
KNIFE, FORK, SPOON, or FINGERS!!
A WORD ABOUT GAGGING AND CHOKING
WHAT ARE THE ROLES OF
ADULTS AT THE TABLE?
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CHILDREN NEED ADULTS TO EAT WITH THEM!
This provides opportunities for modeling. Adults help teach
children hygiene and social conventions. When a relaxed adult
is near, children are more likely to feel relaxed and secure.
Children need adults to keep them safe, including giving support
to hygiene, possible choking hazards, and conflicts that children
negotiate.
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USE PARENTS AS VOLUNTEERS AT MEALTIMES
TALK, LISTEN, and WATCH
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Learn children’s thoughts about food by analyzing the vocabulary
they use. Note how they put foods into categories. Listen to what
children say.
HOW MUCH???????
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Teach children about how to determine bite size.
Talk with them about serving size and how much they pick up
with their eating utensils.
Make child size eating utensils available.
Choose serving utensils that hold a small serving size. (An ice
cream scoop works great!)
Children need smaller servings than adults do. If you serve
children’s plates, make seconds and thirds smaller than initial
amounts.
If you serve the children’s plates, ask them to tell you how
much to put on the plate.
Let’s Practice!
Avoid Choking!
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Eat with children and model taking small bites and chewing thoroughly
Use preventive teaching to the children
Serve food that is safe for children to chew and swallow
Encourage small bites and chewing completely,
Cut foods into small pieces (less than ¼ to ½ inch)
Avoid presenting food to children that is round and firm, sticky, or cut
into large chunks. Food should be no larger than ½ inch in diameter
for preschoolers and ¼ inch for toddlers.
Careful: Avoid These Foods NUTS AND SEEDS, Whole berries, Raw
carrots and celery, Grapes, unless they have been cut in half Firm, hard
raisins, Hot dogs not cut in small slices, Large chunks of meat or
cheese, Popcorn, Hard candy, Chunks of peanut butter
If they are choking deal with that first and talk about it later
Use class rules to help prevent choking: sit on your bottom while you
eat; finish chewing and swallowing before you leave the table; stay out
of other children’s space while they are eating. Insist on children sitting
KNIFE, FORK, SPOON, or
FINGERS!!
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Give children knives, forks, and spoons. The
opportunity to use all three allows children to
exercise muscles, develop skills that are socially
valued, and be more efficient in eating. Remember
that children’s muscles are under construction!
Strength and endurance are not yet established.
Provide child size serving utensils, pitchers, and
bowls. Teach about how to hold and use utensils
when children are relaxed and their muscles are not
fatigued. Talking about how to use the utensils works
best when children are not too hungry and not too
tired. Small group times are good for talking about
serving yourself and using utensils.
Handwashing…again
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15 second handwashing checkup!
Teach about what is YOURS, MINE, and OURS. Make
opportunities for children to learn the rules about eating and
hygiene that are appropriate for “yours”, “mine,” and “ours.”
Teach about hygiene when children serve themselves. Help
children determine what is “mine,” “yours,” and “ours,” and how
to avoid cross contamination.
Teach children to thoroughly wash hands before and after
eating. Teacher’s can model this! As children wash their hands,
be sure to describe what they are doing. “You are using warm
water and soap. You are washing between your fingers.”
Teaching Them to Try It!
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Help children learn about food.
Model tasting foods that are new to children. Remember the food may
be new to the children, though it is commonly known in the
environment.
Give names to foods. Talk about how foods are similar. Talk about the
characteristics of food and help children make food categories.
Integrate food activities throughout the day. Include food and food
“talk” in dramatic play, stories and books.
Teach about foods and categories in the food pyramid. Typically, young
children do not think in the abstract. Most do not understand the
hierarchy of the food pyramid. They can, put foods in categories.
Avoid using the terms “good food” and “bad food.” Talk instead about
how our bodies need grains, fruits and vegetables. Be sure to help
children assign names and discover similarities and differences as they
learn about food.
Be Careful!
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AVOID FORCING CHILDREN TO EAT Do not force
children to eat. Monitor comments to children about
amounts they eat. Subtle forcing is as hurtful as is
obvious forcing. Have someone make notes of
comments you make at the table with children.
SERVING SIZE If you must serve the children’s
plates, do not serve large portions. Give the child a
choice of how much!
ADULT ROLE Do not make lunch break time. This is
time for adults to respond and support children’s
attempts at successful eating. Avoid standing,
walking around the tables, or doing multiple tasks
while the children eat. Arrange people, the serving
bowls, and the children so that the pleasure of sitting
down together is assured.
Conversation that Helps or
Hinders?
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Yes, these radishes are crunchy!
You have to take one more bite before you leave the
table.
This is kiwi fruit. It’s sweet like a strawberry
Do you like that?
Carli, look at Maria. She ate all of her bananas.
Would you like more?
You’re such a big girl; you finished all your peas.
Is your stomach telling you that you’re full?
Eat that for me.
Use your napkin
Move the serving bowl closer to your plate
See, that didn’t taste so bad, did it?
Skills for Serving Self
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Handout
Also found at:
http://iws.ccccd.edu/shirschy/Fall04Cou
rses/CDAIIHANDOUTS.htm
Scenarios
1. Maria is three years old. She is new to your center. Her mother is very
impressed that children serve themselves at mealtimes. She is also
impressed that you have the philosophy that children decide how
much they will eat. Maria’s mom eats lunch with her daughter at
your center on the first day the child arrives. When the bowl is
passed, Maria takes four portions of mashed potatoes.
2. Children are taking more ketchup, mustard, and salad dressing than
is reasonable or even eatable. You are using child-size, plastic
squeeze bottles.
3. Sarah serves herself at lunchtime. She takes only bread and butter.
She eats four pieces of bread. Her mother reports that she eats
mostly bread at home, though she usually eats cereal and bananas
for breakfast.
4. Three, four, and five-year-old children in your center eat where the
food is served cafeteria style. Each plate is prepared for the child.
The cook says it is not possible for the children to serve themselves
at this school.
5. You have infants through older toddlers (age 42 months) in your
center. The staff ask you how they can make the concept of family
style dining work with these young children.
6. As children pass the food around they table, they are putting their
fingers deep in the bowls as they grasp the rimless bowls. What will
you do?