Becoming What You Eat - Early Years Nutrition

Across the world, public health officials are insisting that giving children a healthy start in life is of paramount importance – poor nutrition in our formative years has consequences throughout life. 

The UK’s Early Years Nutrition Partnership reports the following major challenges in eating habits for children under 5 are as follows:

• Children have too much sugar
• Young children eat too little oily fish
• Young children have too little fibre in their diets
• Young children do not eat enough fruit and vegetables

On paper, correcting the above might seem simple, but life at the sharp end of parenting is never quite as straight forward as receiving and acting upon good advice.  Something that seems so simple pre-parenthood (how many of us still have childless friends who would feed their theoretical children only the most nutrient dense, all organic diet!), can often prove incredibly challenging once our children are here (and demanding a steady supply of ketchup and Kit Kats).

How then can we ensure that we provide a fundamentally healthy diet for our youngest children, simultaneously navigating the minefields of picky eating, the contents of their friends lunchboxes AND those extravagantly indulgent birthday parties which dominate our children’s social lives?

What role can nurseries and preschools play in helping us to get our kids diets right?

We spoke to several experts in the UAE to help parents navigate the complicated and often conflicting advice on children’s diets.

Our first port of call was experts from the Early Years industry.  As our working lives become busier, those that provide our childcare become even more important in the role modelling of healthy habits and provision of healthy food. With ever increasing rates of obesity in the developed world, a child’s experiences in their first five years are of paramount importance to avoid joining these deadly statistics. 

Fatima Vohra, Director of Honey Bee Nursery Dubai and Bumble Bee Nursery in Sharjah (and mother of two young children herself) was adamant about the importance of laying the groundwork for a lifetime of healthy eating. 

"The choices that young children make around food usually sets the tone for the rest of their lives. Therefore laying the foundations of healthy eating, encouraging and developing good habits is of paramount importance.”

Over at Children’s Oasis nursery in Umm Suqeim, they correlate nutrition with behaviour, mood and concentration.  Here, hot lunches are delivered for all children daily, recognising (as so many parents do) that often young children eat better with just a small side serving of peer pressure and without the power struggle that really lies behind mummy or daddy encouraging the consumption of broccoli.

As Caitriona Ni Fhiannachta, Nursery Manager told us,

‘We love good food and believe that nutrition has a direct impact on learning, concentration, mood and behaviour.  We have worked with [catering firm] Pinch Gourmet to create a nourishing and tasty menu designed to give children the energy and nutrients needed for a full and fun day.  We focus upon serving balanced, wholesome and fibre-rich meals comprising lean protein (mainly from fish, chicken or lean beef), whole grains, and vegetables. All meals are gluten-free, free of refined sugar, low in fat and salt and nut-free’.

This recognition of the impact of nutrition on a child’s outward behaviour, welfare and learning is a pressing issue for parents of children with additional needs.  A whole host of challenges and additional needs can cause problems with the physical act of eating, with appetite and sensory stimulation and with maintaining a healthy weight.   We approached The Developing Child Centre, which specialises in working with young children with additional needs.  Tracey Warren, Director of Education and School Inclusion suggested parents work with the professionals:

‘In our experience working with children who have additional needs we have become acutely aware of the importance of a balanced diet.  Good eating habits and a balanced diet can have a big impact on a child’s performance at school, particularly sustaining attention and focus throughout the day.  Parents approach us for advice on how to ensure a balanced diet and we recommend the first professional to contact is an Occupational Therapist.  This occupational therapist can provide advice and support for parents of children who are picky eaters through food exploration activities’.

An alarming related trend is poor dental health in young children.  Dr Mai Kamar, Specialist Peadiatric Dentist at Dr Michael’s Dental Centre reports seeing an large and increasing number of children under the age of 2 with dental decay. 

“It is very common that I see toddlers in my office, at two years of age or even younger, with a full set of badly decayed primary teeth. Such children are victims of night time nursing or bottle feeding and having no or minimal oral hygiene. When the baby sleeps while he is nursing or bottle feeding, the teeth are pooled in sugar from the milk all night long. The bacteria in the mouth will have enough time to start the fermentation process that decays the teeth.”

Such issues can be exacerbated in nurseries who do not take leadership with healthy eating.  Dr Mai also said,

“At nurseries or schools that have little or no control over sugar consumption, children may be bringing with them unhealthy snacks in their lunch boxes. Also, due to peer pressure, some children may uptake unhealthy feeding habits and may for the very first time have a sugary snack from a friend at school.

A common misconception among many parents that “organic lollipops” are safe and healthy. Organic means the sugar was planted without any pesticides or genetically engineered grains, but still sugar is sugar! Bacteria in the mouth may be consuming organic sugar but will still cause decay to the teeth.”

However good our intentions are as parents, our children are subject to outside influences from an early age.  As soon as those first friendships start to form, the birthday party invites start arriving, and with that a regular exposure to the standard combo of chicken nuggets, fries, ketchup and a ton of sugar! In addition to a party, many generous parents also send in cakes or sweet treats to share in nursery, a trend many Early Years teachers are now trying to discourage. 

So how best to ensure that your toddler’s booming social scene doesn’t disrupt their healthy diet too much?  Debbie Hulbert of Elite Mind Solutions is a therapist working with adults who are struggling with their weight and likes to keep the lifelong and balanced approach in mind when managing her own children’s diet.

“I don’t want them to miss out or not enjoy parties.  Sharing food is an important social experience.  So, I take this tactic – before we go to a party, I give them a really nutritious meal, full of vegetables and lean proteins.  I tell them the more good food they eat, the more party food they can have when we get there.  They are generally too full to manage much!  My other tactic is to just sneak eat a few of their fries myself when they are not looking…every little helps!”.

How then to ensure that either you or your chosen nursery are providing your child with great nutrition? 

To summarise the advice from our experts:

• Offer a balanced diet from the earliest age, check government advice for up to date guidelines
• Limit sugar
• If your child attends nursery or preschool, consider a Healthy Eating programme an important selection criteria
• If choosing a nursery with catering, analyse their sample menus 
• If your child has additional needs and this is impacting upon their eating habits, enlist expert help

We are pleased to say that the Dubai Government (Food Safety Department) has created some terrific advice in the form of this document - advice for schools which can easily be translated in to the home or nursery setting.  A great starting point to follow at home, for creating balanced weekly eating plans and for ensuring lunchboxes are not packed full of sugar, fat and salt. 

Even more, if you are concerned that your nursery is not listening to your pleas for a healthy eating programme or not providing a healthy diet, you might find that they listen to the good counsel of our government advisors!