CHILD CARE / PRE-SCHOOL FOOD ENVIRONMENT
ENACT STRATEGY: Positive Imagery
Adopt educational materials (e.g. storybooks, coloring books) that contain positive references to healthy food and avoid educational/play materials that endorse products such as fast food or cookies
One exciting and fun way to encourage healthy nutrition habits in young children is through positive imagery. For example, research indicates that positive food messages contained in fairy tales and children's storybooks can impact vegetable consumption. In general, preschools and daycare centers should strive to adopt materials (e.g. storybooks, coloring books etc.) that contain positive references to healthy foods. Similarly, it is important to avoid materials that endorse specific products, such as fast food or cookies, to avoid influencing children's food choices negatively.
"Developed to reach limited-resource children ages four and five with fun, interactive learning opportunities on physical activity and healthy eating...[this program] is designed to stimulate all of the senses of young children: touch, smell, sight, sound, and, or course, taste.”
Food Friends: Making New Foods Fun for Kids
Developed by University of Colorado, this program introduces children to new foods and creates a positive feeding environment in an effort to increase children's willingness to try new foods. The program consists of "hands-on" nutrition activities, storybooks, and many opportunities to try new foods.
This program developed by University of Colorado, “Food Friends: Making New Foods Fun for Kids,” is taught in schools and childcare centers and is based on research showing best practices for overcoming “neophobia”
Experiences and Exposures Shape Young Children’s Food Preferences
This journal article discusses the scientific evidence for young children’s food acceptance patterns, including a predisposition to “neophobia” (an aversion to trying new foods), and how their exposures and experiences with different foods shape and shift their preferences. Most importantly, it shows that repeated exposures to new and healthy foods in a positive environment can overcome initial aversions to these foods.
Birch L. Development of food acceptance patterns in the first years of life. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 1998; 57(4): 617-624.