Most people understand that a balanced diet is essential for
children to develop into healthy adults. Some may even have
knowledge about the essential 5 food groups that should be consumed
daily in order to have strong bones and teeth, good skin, an
active mind and an ability to overcome illness quickly.
All hail to the courage of people such as Jamie Oliver who have
taken up the challenge of re-introducing real food into the
school lunch time.
The importance
of healthy eating actually begins at a much earlier age. At
Primary Steps, nursery workers understand that the process of
weaning is not just to ensure that children receive enough food
to sustain their growth. The incidental benefits are much more
profound.
Through the introduction
of more solid foods, children will gradually discover different
tastes, textures, colours and temperatures of produce that will
help them to develop the ability to discriminate between things
they like to eat and things they don’t. Watch a baby when
it is introduced to solid food for the first time, its lips
actually curl away from the food because it is such a strange
experience. Initially it will squash the food with its tongue,
probably trying to eject it from its mouth and accidentally
swallow some.
That first taste sensation
is inevitably a shock, the key here is how the parent reinforces
that experience. Lots of praise and joyful noises will encourage
the child to keep on trying. Most of us react against change
to start with. We need time and practice to adjust. Babies are
no different.
Just because they appear
to dislike a food on first taste, does not mean they have rejected
it out of hand. Wait and try again in a minute or so. It is
important that as parents and carers we do not always offer
a sweet taste as compensation.
By being offered foods which
require more ‘work’ than milk, water and juice,
children learn how to chew, lick their lips and swallow. Each
one of these actions is pivotal in the development of good,
clear speech. The action required to suckle is unique to babies.
They have to push their tongues out and press the teat or nipple
between the roof of their mouth and tongue. Swallowing is almost
incidental, the liquid trickles down their throats creating
the swallow reflex.
When we offer more solid
food to babies, they have to learn how to use different parts
of their mouths. The first mouth part babies becomes aware of
is their lips. Once they ‘feel’ them, they spend
hours practising the lip-smacking sounds we hear: ‘mamamamammmmm’,
or ‘babababbbaa’ are among the first real baby sounds
our children make that remind us of our own speech patterns.
At about the same time, the baby is beginning to grow teeth.
The discomfort and also the new sensation of something in the
gums, prompts another recognisable speech sound: ‘dada
dddaa’.
Whichever
of these sounds is produced first, the proud parent or carer
will make every effort to encourage their child to repeat the
sound and the baby, who is already programmed to be a sociable
creature, does his or her best. The process is fun. If it wasn’t,
it wouldn’t be encouraged and therefore, no one would
learn how to talk!
Licking lips, biting and
chewing prompt sounds linked to those mouth parts. Eventually,
most of the phonetic single and combined utterances that make
up the words we use in our language will be practiced by the
action of taking in food, masticating it and swallowing.
So, by the time children
begin their third year, their ability to form words is already
established. The awareness of preferences and making choices
has begun. The enjoyment and delight at the presentation of
food stems from these early beginnings.
Adults should focus on making
meal times a pleasurable social event. Time taken to present
food in an attractive format may stimulate the child’s
appetite and encourage a positive attitude towards new flavours
and types of foods. In Primary Steps nurseries, the emphasis
is on freshly prepared and cooked food and a multi-cultural
approach.
