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This week we are delighted to offer you an article by PhD student Ruth Wallace who has developed a unique online resource for early childhood educators and carers interested in learning about promoting excellent nutrition in early childhood settings.
The SNACWA website is available to services across the country and you simply need to fill in a quick registration form to access the resources.
Supporting Nutrition for Australian Childcare
by Ruth Wallace
Early childhood is an important time for growth, and nutrition in particular plays an essential role in a child's physical, social and emotional development, contributing significantly to good health as an adult. As more than 1 million children now attend some form of early years service, this sector is an important setting, not only for the provision of nutritious foods, but also for the child to learn healthy food habits which will remain with them through to adulthood.
However, research has shown that, for a number of reasons, providing nutritious food and promoting a healthy eating environment is not always an easy task for early years educators. WA research from the mid-1990s established a need for more training and support for the early years industry and from this, the Start Right Eat Right accreditation scheme was implemented. However, whilst running successfully for a number of years in WA and then SA, the scheme lost government funding after the introduction of the National Quality Standards, and is no longer operational.
Additionally, anecdotal evidence from educators attending an early years mini-conference in 2011, reiterated this already well known need for more training and better support, to be able to better provide nutritious food. Early years directors, food coordinators and educators reported that it was important to them to be able to provide nutritious food, but they did not always have the skills or knowledge to do so.
With this is mind, the first part of my PhD project set out to establish what early years educators needed to support them to provide a healthy eating environment to the children in their care, with a view to developing an online, nutrition specific resource. An online resource was thought to be appropriate as the majority of Australian's have access to and use the internet regularly, and is a commonly used method for delivering health promotion programs.
Results from the first phase of the project, which involved interviews with 48 educators in WA, established that they were concerned about children's food preferences, fussy eating and parental influences on the children's diets. Whilst the educators I interviewed all expressed a very positive attitude towards providing a healthy eating environment, some also expressed their concerns about their own ability and confidence to discuss or teach basic nutrition concepts. There were also concerns about being able to access reliable, accurate nutrition resources via the internet. Educators regularly used the internet to search for nutrition information but readily acknowledged that they could not be sure of the accuracy of the information they found. They also expressed an interest in networking with other centres as a means of sharing ideas and strategies and offering support to others, in an online setting.
In addition to the interviews, a consultancy group was also established. This was comprised of key stakeholders from the industry, such as education services directors, early childhood experts from ECU and other key organisations such as Ngala, Child Australia and Meerilinga. This group also provided valuable insight into the needs of the early years sector, and how to best promote the website once developed.
Armed with this information, and given that the majority of educators access the internet on a regular basis, the research team set about developing the website and the 'Supporting Nutrition for Australian Childcare' or 'SNAC' website was launched on 1 August 2013. The site was initially rolled out to WA long day care services but has since been made available to all types of early years services Australia wide.
The SNAC website provides reliable and accurate nutrition specific resources together with online activities. These are designed to up skill educators about basic nutrition concepts and increase their confidence to teach these to children and discuss them with the parents. For example, there are many fact sheets, covering topics such as dealing with fussy eating, allergies and food label reading – and many, many more. There are links to other key organisations such as Child Australia, Nutrition Australia and the Heart Foundation.
Ideas for healthy eating activities are also offered – these are designed to help educators with planned activities which promote healthy eating, but are not necessarily focused around mealtimes or eating. For example, there is a water pouring activity, which allows toddlers to practice this sometimes messy activity outside, thus building up their own confidence, but also providing the educator with an opportunity to promote drinking water as the healthy option. Other examples include growing carrot tops, the 'Eat for Health' game and 'Plant Investigators', which are all linked to healthy eating and sustainability.
A bank of menu planning resources such as menu planning checklists and sample two week menu plans are also available to download, together with a raft of nutritious, child specific recipes which have been designed and tested specifically for the early years setting. The online activities offered are brief videos and quizzes, which cover topics such as menu planning, basic nutrition concepts and food label reading. These are useful for brushing up nutrition knowledge, and certificates of completion are available for personal development folders if requested.
It is important to note however, that these resources and activities are not designed to replace the existing mandatory training but to add value, by offering current and accurate nutrition information wrapped in support.
Lastly, there are also a series of discussion boards on the SNAC website (found under the 'community' tab), which are designed for educators to share their ideas and strategies, and to seek support from the SNAC team and other educators. For example, there is an 'Ask the Nutritionist' forum, in which educators are able pose those tricky nutrition questions that nobody seems to have the answer to. By posing their question on this forum, they will receive an accurate answer, rather than having to trawl the internet and sifting through a mountain of information which may or not be correct. The added advantage of posting this question and answer on the forum is obviously that others are then able to share that information. For example, we ran a forum where we asked educators to share a common food myth they have heard of, and then provided a correct answer. We had all sorts of queries from the negative effects of artificial sweeteners to 'does an apple a day really keep the doctor away?' Check out the SNAC website for the answers!
There are now over 500 registered users on the SNAC website and educators are being actively encouraged to access the community forums, and to engage with me and their colleagues with the aim of building a valuable professional network and fostering a sense of community within the early years industry. The SNAC team encourages you to register as a user and to help us develop this valuable and important early years resource. Your feedback is also highly valuable to the research team, so if you come across something on the site that you like or don't like, please feel free to leave your feedback. If you require a particular resource that you cannot find on the website, please let the SNAC team know, and we will endeavour to find something to meet your requirements.
Whilst this is a research project, and you are required to register with some personal information, it is monitored by ECU's Ethics Committee, so your confidentiality is assured at all times. You can even choose a user name that does not reveal your true identity if this is what you prefer.
On a final note, I would like to thank all the 'snacers' who have been a part of this project from the start and who have worked with the SNAC team to get us this far. Please do take 5 minutes to register as we are sure you would also enjoy being part of the SNAC community.
Ruth Wallace has a Bachelor of Health Science (Health Promotion/Nutrition) with Honours, and is an Associate Nutritionist (registered with the Nutrition Society of Australia). She is also a PhD candidate and sessional tutor at Edith Cowan University and sits on the Committee of Management for Nutrition Australia (WA Division) where she engages with voluntary work, offering presentations, cooking demonstrations and other activities, covering all aspects of community nutrition, including early years.
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