Assignment 2: Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

 

 Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

If I possessed the means and the knowledge to conduct a research study on any topic in the early childhood field, I would choose the topic healthy nutritional food options for childcare facilities. Providing healthy nutritious food options is important to the healthy development of children. There are many positive contributions that can occur by offering children nutritious food options at a childcare facility.



            When a childcare facility provides healthy options of food for children, the children will develop the skill of choosing healthy food options outside of the facility. According to The more schools do to promote healthy eating, the healthier the dietary choices by students, “The number of actions that secondary schools have in place to promote healthy eating is significantly associated with healthy food choices made by students.” (Townsend, Murphy, & Moore, 2011) When childcare providers teach and demonstrate  to children the healthy options, they have towards the food they are eating children will begin to make healthy food choices. A goal of a childcare facility should be to teach children to make healthier food choices. A positive contribution of children eating healthy within a childcare facility is children choosing to healthy outside of childcare facility.



Another positive contribution that can be associated with providing healthy food options for children in a childcare facility is children will receive some important dietary nutrients that they may not be getting at home. The food items being offered to children at childcare facilities should have an objective to meet the daily nutritional requirements for children. According to The California endowment's healthy eating, active communities program: a midpoint review, “Many of these factors are exacerbated in low-income communities, where healthy and affordable food options and safe opportunities for physical activity are noticeably absent.” (Samuels, Craypo, Boyle,  Crawford, Yancey, & Flores, 2010). When childcare facilities offer nutritional options for food, they may be serving it to children that come from homes that do not have the ability of offering healthy food options. It is not good enough to only teach children about healthy food options, it is important to provide children with the ongoing opportunity to eat food that is nutritional.

     While conducting research for this blog I can across a resource I would like to provide to my fellow colleagues. The resource is a website called Child Nutrition Recipe Box,https://theicn.org/ibites/team-nutritions-usda-standardized-recipes-will-be-moving-to-the-institute-of-child-nutritions-child-nutrition-recipe-box/.  This website provides childcare professionals with nutritional recipes they can use within their facility. 





Reference

Samuels, S. E., Craypo, L., Boyle, M., Crawford, P. B., Yancey, A., & Flores, G. (2010). The California endowment's healthy eating, active communities program: a midpoint review. American journal of public health, 100(11), 2114-2123.

Townsend, N., Murphy, S., & Moore, L. (2011). The more schools do to promote healthy eating, the healthier the dietary choices by students. J Epidemiol Community Health, 65(10), 889-895.

Comments

  1. Teach the ChildrenJuly 25, 2021 at 6:42 PM

    Growing up my great granny always told me “healthy students are better learners”. Through federally funded child nutrition programs, schools contribute greatly to the formation of lifelong healthy eating habits. Besides milk, fruit and vegetables, school meals also offer fiber and calcium or at least they did when I was going to school. From experience I know poor nutrition, lack of physical activity and an overall unhealthy lifestyle can lead to poor academic achievement in children. I would never eat at school so my mother started packing me fruit for lunch and sometimes vegetables when I wanted them. Healthy children get better grades, attend school more often and behave better in class.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jen AminJuly 25, 2021 at 6:56 PM

    Channette, high-quality, nutritional food for childcare programs is such an important topic of research! I worked in a preschool for 12 years where we valued healthy eating. We had a cook who made everything from scratch, with lots of fruits, veggies, milk, homemade muffins, etc. Now I am a coach for 15 teachers in different schools, and I am appalled by the terrible food served to the children including lots of junk food like chips, crackers, and sugary baked goods with little to no nutritional value. I look forward to hearing more about your research endeavor. Thank you for the resource!

    ReplyDelete

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