How to support confident eating for young children
Our relationship with food starts early on, and early education and care professionals play an important part in encouraging healthy habits, establishing nutritious routines and supporting children to feel confident about their eating choices.
Getting nutrition right in the early years underpins healthy development for both body and mind, fuelling the rapid growth of a young child’s body and brain with all the energy it needs to sustain its fascinating rate of growth. Whilst one part of this involves understanding the right foods to eat and the portions they should be given in, another important aspect of nutritional health is about encouraging a positive mindset about eating. A healthy relationship with food is not just about understanding why it’s good for us, but also feeling confident and happy about the choices we make when it comes to food.
This learning workout is going to focus on how we can encourage confidence when it comes to eating at the setting and how this can be sustained through early childhood for a prosperous future where food is fun!
What does it mean to be a confident eater?
We have previously discussed positive mindsets for eating and approaching food in fun ways in setting, but when we think about confidence with food, what do we really mean? Positive attitudes towards food are a great way to promote confidence and a sense of certainty when it comes to our eating. Confidence at mealtimes can vary from child to child as there are many different aspects of the experience to consider.
Before we continue, take a moment to think about your setting and write down as many aspects of the experience that might influence a child’s approach and confidence in the moment. For example, if they are sat at a table with lots of other children, they may feel uncomfortable eating in front of lots of others, especially if they are not familiar with this. This might present itself as hesitation or quietness at the table during food times.
Confidence may present itself in several ways, such as:
- being keen to help prepare for mealtimes
- showing enthusiasm when food time is announced
- showing a willingness to self-select food options
- talking about and engaging in food play, such as roleplay in the kitchen or messy play involving food
- being willing to give new tastes and textures a try, even when they don’t seem appealing or result in dislike.
Healthy and confident approaches to food are the root to healthy eating habits later in life. Evidence suggests that some (but not all) eating disorders can be linked back to eating traits exhibited in early childhood and, with increasing concerns for child obesity, establishing a confident and educated approach to food early on paves the way for a balanced lifestyle into the future.
Did you know?
Rates of childhood obesity are linked to rates of deprivation: rates of severely obesity among children are around four times higher in the most deprived areas.
As early education and care professionals, our influence spans much further than just the mealtimes in setting. Encouraging children to express interests of food throughout their life, including in the home learning environment, helps to establish a thorough confidence in their relationship with food.
Think about the communication you currently send home about food times and approaches to diet. Mind map the ways in which you talk about food and their context and frequency to get a good idea of how parents and carers experience this from an outside perspective. For example, do you record what a child eats to relay at handover? Is this updated on an app or verbally communicated at the end of the day? What is its purpose?
How to build confidence in food, nutrition and mealtimes
Encourage exploration of food at the table
Introduce a wide range of foods with different colours, textures and flavours that encourage children to explore new senses with their natural inquisitiveness. Playing with their food is an important part of sensitively approaching unfamiliar things, showing caution but curiosity.
Allow children to explore their food with all their senses, even if they don’t immediately eat it. This can help to establish a sense of confidence in their relationship with the food as they explore it on a variety of levels and feel comfortable with their choices when they do choose to pop it in their mouth.
Give choices
Not every child will like every food! Whilst supporting children to try new things, we also need to respect when they say no. If a child dislikes the smell or feel of a food, their rejection of it is as valid as not liking the taste itself.
Give children choices when offering new foods to allow them to partake in the experience in a way that promotes autonomy with food, sending a valuable message that they are in control. This could also involve serving various parts of a meal in separate sections to avoid cross-contamination and allow children to select their options easily. New foods should be introduced with patience and at the child’s pace, so it’s a good idea to add one new taste to a familiar meal, making it a less intimidating introduction. It may also take several exposures to a new food before a young child is willing to take interest or try it.
Encourage wider experiences
Understanding healthy choices and confidence with food is not just about what we clear from our plates of a mealtime. Encourage children to engage with food on a variety of levels, making it a positive and familiar part of their day. Roleplay areas are fabulous opportunities to talk about a myriad of experiences with food, such as cooking in a kitchen, creating a restaurant scene or going to the supermarket. All these associations with food bring different topics of conversation, including about making healthy choices in the food we eat, the value of cooking and talking about cultural experiences too.
Stories and books that promote food and talking about interactions that involve eating are also helpful ways to establish values and encourage children to contribute. Whilst fictional stories are a great way to provide a collective opportunity for conversations about food, there are lots of other alternatives to support culinary conversations. Recipe books are a good source of pictures too and expose children to a real-life format for thinking about cooking and diet. They are a helpful provision to incorporate early maths into food play too!
Be a good role model
Children learn not only by what they are told but by the behaviours and actions around them. As a consistent grown up in their lives, early education and care professionals have a strong influence on children’s attitudes and values so it’s essential that we reciprocate confidence with food and healthy values to support their understanding.
If you are comfortable doing so, engage in conversations surrounding food by adding your own input, such as highlighting vegetables that you enjoy when playing together in the roleplay area or contributing to cultural conversations to emphasise a variety of experiences.
Similarly, it can be helpful to get involved to encourage children, empathising with trying new experiences and recognising when things are tricky. This might involve ‘trying’ a food alongside a child to reassure them throughout the experience or acknowledging efforts and praising positive attitudes, even if it means they don’t try the food itself.
Conclusions
Providing positive experiences in early education and care are pivotal for changing attitudes and establishing constructive ways to develop healthy relationships with a variety of different aspects to learning, including mathematics, physical activity and understanding the value of nutrition and food.
For children to maintain a healthy relationship with food, it’s highly beneficial for children and their families to discover the value of eating well and approach food times with confidence.
