Research in relation to promoting physical activity and healthy eating

The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) is the Australian framework for supporting the early years. It not only supports children’s learning, it also supports them through their school transitions. There are three key elements to the EYLF. These are:

• Belonging
• Becoming
• Being

The EYLF suggests that children should take responsibility for their own health and physical well-being. This is similar to the British EYFS stating that children should be able to communicate their own needs such as being hungry, thirsty, tired etc. The Australian government published ‘Eat for Health’ dietary guidelines in 2013. There are five guidelines with each supporting the health and well-being of adults and children. With regard to children it states that they should eat sufficient nutritious foods to grow and should be active every day and have regular check-ups to observe their growth. Many of the guidelines are similar to the guidelines that are set for Britain such as eating foods from the main food groups and limiting the intake of added sugars and salts. Guideline five offers support on how to prepare and store food safely.

Global physical activity initiatives

Get Up and Grow (2009) is an initiative that has been introduced in Australia. It is tailored for early years. It promotes the healthy eating and physical activity of children under five. It offers advice on breastfeeding, formula feeding and introducing solids. There are a range of resources which can be used in early years settings, such as posters, stickers, cookery books for children, family books, brochures and staff handbooks. All resources promote and support the Get Up and Grow 2009 document. It offers advice for families and practitioners in supporting healthy eating and physical activity in the early years.

Finland also has their own set of dietary guidelines. Within their guidelines they suggest that at least 500g or six handfuls of fruit and vegetables should be eaten daily, and that more wholegrain and less refined grain should be eaten. This is different to British guidelines which suggests five portions of fruit and vegetables compared to Finland’s six. Finland also suggest that people should be eating no more than 500g of red and processed meat a week. They also offer advice on how best to support the environment. For example, exchanging bottled water for tap water and eating more vegetables is good for the environment, and buying products that are in season.

Finland noticed that in 2009 around one in five five-year-olds were classed as overweight. Finland found this was due to childcare settings not providing nutritious foods and adequate physical activity. Finland began to make changes to improve children’s health. They improved school playgrounds and limited sugary snacks in childcare settings and offered healthy meals at school. They are improving their policies and are working with The National Institute of Health and Welfare to implement national polices such as the Health Care Act. Finland are also introducing tax on sugar, sweets, drinks, confectionary and ice cream.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are working towards improving their 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines. There will be a focus on life stages as well as pregnant women and infants from birth to 24 months. The following are the proposed topics that are to link into the guidelines:

• Infants and toddlers from birth to 24 months
• Children and adolescents (2-18 years old)
• Adults (19-64 years old)
• Pregnancy and lactation
• Over 65-year-olds

Let’s Move is an American national initiative to support families in improving their children’s diets and getting them physically active. It was introduced in 2010 by Obama to try and tackle childhood obesity. He stated that they needed to improve the nutrition policies to ensure healthy and affordable foods were in schools and communities. He was keen to empower parents to engage their children in more physical activities. Let’s Move offers meal plans, tips and hints on how to get children active and advice to support parents in keeping to a budget yet still eating healthy meals. In relation to early years the Let’s Move initiative offers a programme specifically for the early years; it has suggested five main goals that each early years setting should meet. These are:

• Children should have 1-2 hours of physical activity throughout the day.
• Recommended by the American Academy of Paediatrics, children under two shouldn’t have access to any screen time and children over two should be limited to 30 minutes per week in the setting and no more than 1-2 hours per day at home.
• Ensure that fruits and vegetables are served with every meal.
• Children over two years of age should be served low-fat milk, have access to water and have no more than 4-6 oz of juice a day.
• Breastfeeding should be supported in the setting and mothers should feel comfortable if they wish to continue breastfeeding in the setting or express for their children.

Physical activity and healthy eating should be encouraged from birth. When children are under two they can be encouraged to play on floor-based play and water-based activities providing they are in safe environments. For children who are capable of walking they should be receiving around three hours of physical play throughout the day. Children in an early years setting should be limited to being sedentary for long periods of time.

Non-walkers

Even though children are unable to walk to begin with it is still important that they have time and space to explore their physical movements. It can help with maintaining a healthy weight, building early social and emotional bonds, developing a good posture and strength, developing all of their senses, teaching them about body parts and developing language and communication skills. There are a range of activities that can be used in an early years setting for non-walkers such as tummy time and opportunities for children to push, pull and grab objects. Tummy time is important for non-walkers because it plays a significant role in supporting a baby’s sensory and visual development. It also supports strengthening their legs, arms, back, neck and head control. Allowing a non-walker to explore their surroundings on their tummy will in turn encourage them to roll over and provide the opportunity for them to position themselves into the crawling position. It is key that they are given plenty of time to develop their neck muscles during building their head control stability because it supports the development of their speech and language skills. For non-walkers it is essential that the setting provides for plenty of safe space for them to roll and move around. The use of sensory toys can be an essential resource for babies to develop their physical movements. It can also support their eye development and prompts them to move their arms and motor skills by exploring the different textures.

It is important to get down to the child’s level when interacting with them; this way they can learn from you. This will also continue to stimulate their senses and engages them to continue moving around. Not only is it important for early years settings to interact with babies, it is predominately down to the parents to continue supporting their child’s development and learning skills.  Information can be given to parents on the importance of allowing their children to move and explore freely and how to reduce sedentary time when possible in a safe environment. Babies learn a large amount of their skills from their parents, therefore it is key that parents play a big part in interacting with their children and encourage their development. Parents should be encouraged to bring their children in appropriate clothing for outdoor play.

Walkers

Children who are able to walk, according to guidelines, are expected to do three hours of physical activity a day. It is vital that there are plenty of opportunities for children to be physically active. It is essential to provide an enabling environment for children to explore and which encourages them to move. The environment should allow the children to use their muscles, engage in energetic activity, practise a range of movements, understand a variety of space and equipment, allow them to have fun and make up their own activities. It is also important to allow children to develop their motor skills. By the time children are in preschool they should have the opportunities to develop locomotive skills, stability skills and object-control skills. Everyday tasks can contribute to a child’s physical development such as walking or cycling to the shops, setting the table, tidying toys away or gardening.

Parents should understand the importance of physical activities for their children and that they should engage with their children. This in turn can encourage children to be active and want to explore their surroundings and keep them stimulated. If parents are physically active, then children are more likely to be active. Research has shown that parents who are active lead the way for a positive impact on their child’s physical development. There are many ways how a child can incorporate three hours of physical activity into their day-to-day life. For example, walking to the early years setting, playing with siblings at home, engaging children in daily tasks, walking to the shops, structured activities, outdoor opportunities at the early years setting they attend and playing with parents. It is essential that children have a free flow opportunity to allow them to run, jump, skip and hop at their leisure. This will encourage their curiosity to explore different body movements. With this in mind, it is still important to provide outdoor resources for children to expand other areas of learning such as reading, numeracy and imaginative and creative development. When supporting the environment, it is important to consider using all available space to the maximum. This can encourage children to develop their spatial awareness skills and engages them to understand where they are in relation to objects.

Healthy eating

When children attend an early years setting it is important that the setting sets an example of healthy eating. Healthy eating should be shared throughout the setting and practitioners should be confident in informing parents about the importance of it and how it is implemented on a daily basis. It is key that early years settings plan a healthy weekly menu. This will enable the families to see what their child is having to eat. It is important to ensure that you cater for all dietary requirements and allergies. Dietary requirements could include vegetarian, vegan or pescatarian. Allergies could include dairy intolerance, peanut allergies or gluten intolerance. This information will be gathered from the families before the child starts. Fresh drinking water should be available throughout the day for all children and milk can be given during snack time.

Meals and snacks should be prepared in accordance to the age of the child, for example a child under one year old should be given food that is blended, and practitioners should respect the wishes of the families. Children under one should also be given softer fruits and vegetables. All children should be observed while they are eating to avoid choking.

It is important to not only feed the children healthy meals, you should educate the children about healthy eating and have activities that allow children to be involved in creating healthy meals. For example, children could make fruit kebabs, homemade pizzas, fruit and vegetable tasting or baking flapjacks. Allowing children to be actively involved in preparing meals will support their understanding and knowledge of healthy eating. Teaching children about healthy eating is integrated into the learning and development areas in the EYFS. Therefore, it is essential that it is incorporated throughout early years settings. Healthy eating can also be talked about while children are trying new foods or preparing meals; this is an opportunity for children to ask questions and expand their knowledge and interests further. Other activities that can be used in early years setting to promote healthy eating are:

• Making fruit or vegetable people
• Make a collage from cutting out fruit and vegetable pictures
• Fruit and vegetable printing
• Growing own vegetables such as runner beans
• Food smelling game
• Making pictures with foods such as rice and pasta
• Singing about healthy food
• Reading stories about healthy eating

Dietary impacts

Studies have shown that the foods children are fed can impact on their behaviour. It is important that children are fed a balanced diet in order to support their growth and cognitive development. Common behavioural issues that may occur due to a poor diet are attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), irritability and aggression. Diets that are high in sugar, fast food, artificial food additives and trans fat have all been studied and the studies have found a possible link to behavioural issues. Some young children do tend to bite, hit or have aggressive behaviour. Aggression can be linked to ADHD, however, not all children who are aggressive have ADHD. It is key to look at their diet to find out if they are consuming large amounts of sugars and trans fats.

A healthy diet can improve a child’s concentration and support brain development. Evidence has shown that children who eat breakfast are more likely to learn and develop their knowledge and skills than those who don’t. Children who are hungry are likely to be frustrated, have tantrums and behavioural and emotional issues.

Dr Benjamin Feingold (1960) argued that the main ingredients that caused a child’s skin to react badly were additives such as colourings and preservatives.  In 2007 professor Jim Stevenson undertook a study with regard to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and diets. He wanted to see if the removal of certain food additives impacted on the behaviour of a child who suffered ADHD. The results of the study showed that of the children who consumed a small amount of additives there was only a small impact on their behaviour. Even though the impact was only small Stevenson still believed that it was time for the government to remove additives from children’s diets. However, this study has been criticised because the children were given six additives, therefore making it difficult to determine if a single additive affected their behaviour or whether it was all six. The World Health Organisation has reported that certain foods can affect a child’s mood; the foods can trigger chemical and physiological changes in the brain and this can impact on a child’s behaviour. If a child does not eat enough carbohydrates or omega-3 fatty acids they can become irritable, tired and depressed. This in turn can affect their behaviour.

The term ‘Holistic Development’ was made popular during the 1960s and refers to the development of a child as a whole. Rather than looking at one particular area of development, working holistically takes into account the emotional, physical, creative, spiritual and intellectual development of a child and how these should be encouraged. The holistic approach is often based on allowing children to explore their environment and does not focus on trying to get children to memorise facts and learn things by committing them to memory. By doing this, a practitioner can focus on the development of a child and see how each area of development is connected to others. This interconnection of each area of learning can be seen through things like language and how this links to a range of others such as social development, reading, writing and play. Each area of development is seen as being connected. It may be that, if a child struggles with a certain area of their development, it could have an impact on other areas of their development. With this in mind, practitioners can use special screening programmes that are designed to pick up areas of difficulty that a child may be experiencing.

Holistic approaches to healthy eating

When a holistic approach is used for children it can inspire them to learn about a subject, it instils curiosity and can encourage children to learn naturally and creatively. Holistic approaches can support children in developing better communication and social skills. It can also increase their confidence with learning. In the long term a benefit of holistic approaches for children is that as adults they can be innovative in the workplace, which comes from being curious and inquisitive in the early years.

If a child has the opportunity to be physically active it can support all areas of their development; this can support a holistic approach. Children are able to interact with other children and develop sharing skills. This in turn supports the social and emotional development skills. When children are physically active they are able to develop their empathy skills by supporting other children who may be finding activities difficult. It also allows them to develop their understanding of children’s feelings and enables them to follow instructions and guidance.

Physical activity also supports language skills for children. It allows children the opportunity to interact with other children and listen to the language that others use. Encouraging children to be engaged in activities can introduce them to a wide range of new vocabulary daily.

Cognitive development is another area of development that can benefit from a child being physical active. It is proven that it can promote positive brain functions and allows children to develop their problem-solving skills. If a child has access to a range of resources that allows them to physically move from one task to another it can improve their memory, reasoning skills and task flexibility.

Physical activities allow children to develop their movements, balance and co-ordination skills. It can support the improvement of their fine and gross motor skills and develop stronger bones. Their muscles can also benefit from being active by increasing the strength.

Healthy eating can have an impact on a child’s development. If a child eats a balanced diet it can enhance their brain development. Children can have lower IQ scores and lead to learning disorders if their diet is poor. Behavioural and social problems can also occur from a poor diet. It is important to provide children with vitamins, minerals and macro nutrients to ensure they have enough nutrition for their brain development; additionally it allows the body to grow and mature naturally.

If a child is provided with healthy choices from an early age they are more likely to continue with healthier options as they reach adulthood. It can ensure that a child grows and develops properly for the rest of their lives.