Importance of Child Care Professionals in Promoting Healthy Eating Habits in Children

This paper focuses on the role of child care professionals in promoting healthy eating habits in children and the impact it has on their overall well-being. It discusses the importance of balanced nutrition, the guidelines provided by the government, and the responsibilities of child care services. The study emphasizes the need for early intervention and the long-lasting effects of instilling good eating habits in children.

Running head: HEALTH AND WELLBEING
HEALTH AND WELLBEING
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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

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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).
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-

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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

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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.
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 (Ro.ecu.edu.au. 2018).

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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.

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