Elaine Wilson & M. Burns
Oklahoma State University
Copyright/Access Information
When you're caring for children, especially very little ones, a big part of your job involves food. Wise providers learn early how to make eating fun.
While eating should be a pleasant experience, food can easily
become a source of tension between children and adults. It's best
to relax and avoid making a fuss over food. Offer children food
at regular times (mealtimes and snacktimes) and not in between,
try to avoid distractions during mealtime, and don't worry if
children only eat one thing. They will eat more when they're hungry.
If you let meals become a battleground, you'll often find yourself
the loser.
Let children get used to new foods by seeing them on the table,
but serve only small portions. Respect their independence by letting
them decide whether they want a taste or none at all.
Sometimes children will not eat certain foods. What are the consequences
if three-year-olds refuse to eat vegetables? It's probably not
harmful if they are eating a balanced diet. Forget vegetables
for a while. Next time, they may try them out of curiosity and
end up liking them.
An experienced provider shared these tips:
Helping children eat and enjoy many different foods while meeting
their nutritional needs is a big issue. Research does not give
us answers on children's food preferences. However, food likes
and dislikes often correspond with those of parents or other significant
adults. There's also the matter of exposure. You come to like
what you get used to and dislike the unfamiliar. It may be very
difficult to include things in your child care menu that you don't
particularly like. Here are some things that you might try:
A wise provider serves meals with love. It's been shown that
"feeding with love" produces better weight and height
growth in children than feeding similar foods in an emotionally
negative climate. In young children, exploring and experimenting
during mealtime is normal and desired. In doing so, the child
develops a sense of autonomy that, if allowed to flower, can evolve
into confidence and healthy self esteem. If, on the other hand,
impulses are constantly denied, they can turn into feelings of
shame and self-doubt.
Here are some typical problems and suggestions for feeding a one-year-old:
Problem: Donny stands and plays at the table instead of
eating.
Suggestion: Don't let him. Put him down and let him wait
until the next feeding to eat again. Be consistent and firm, not
punitive. If he's really hungry, he'll soon learn to sit still
while eating. A baby's appetite is less keen at a year than at
eight months and his calorie needs are lower. A one-year-old will
get enough to eat if he lets his own hunger be his guide.
Problem: Christine wants to poke her fingers into her food.
Suggestion: Let her. She has much to learn from feeling
the texture of her food. When she knows all about it, she'll naturally
gravitate to using a spoon.
Problem: Alex wants to manage a spoon himself, but he can't
handle it.
Suggestion: Let him try. If he masters it, withdraw gradually
until he is feeding himself completely. This is an age at which
a baby can learn to feed himself and is most strongly motivated
to do so. He will spill, of course, but he will grow out of it
soon enough.
Problem: Shelley refuses foods that are good for her.
Suggestion: This is a way of demonstrating autonomy, one
of the few available to a one-year-old. Don't force her. The first
year is the most important in establishing future food preferences.
Most life-long feeding problems develop at the one- to two-year
old stage. As long as she's getting enough milk and is offered
a variety of nutritious foods from which to choose, she'll gradually
acquire a taste for different foods. If she refuses milk, find
an appropriate substitute: milk-based puddings, custard, cheese,
or calcium-fortified soy milk.
Problem: Kevin prefers sweets, candy, and sugary things
to foods that contain more nutrients.
Suggestion: Human beings of all races and cultures have
a natural, in-born preference for sweet tasting foods. Limit them
strictly. There is very little room in a baby's daily 1,000 calories
for calories from sweets.
What do you do when lunch wasn't eaten? When children, especially
toddlers, don't eat at mealtime, you may worry that they aren't
getting enough to eat. The temptation is to repeatedly offer them
foods throughout the day. This is called "grazing."
Research shows that children who "graze" can establish
very poor eating habits. Snacking throughout the day keeps a child
from ever really feeling hungry, which makes eating on schedule,
plus having to sit still, very difficult. Also, your whole day
may become a repeated cycle of preparing food, having it rejected,
then trying again later to get a child to eat.
Try offering meals and snacks at consistent times each day so
children begin to sense their bodies' inner cues for hunger. This
means you don't offer food at other times, nor as a reward or
punishment. Playing games to force or trick a child into eating
will backfire quickly. Allow children to refuse a meal without
any fuss. In your role as "gatekeeper," offer a variety
of nutritious foods and set a good example by eating and enjoying
a well-balanced diet.
Eating too much sugar can cause two types of problems for children
- dental cavities and empty calories. Foods high in sugar and
fat and low in protein, vitamins, and/or minerals are called "empty
calorie" foods. Because young children can only eat limited
amounts of food, it's important to avoid empty calories.
There's also the problem of childhood obesity. Although there
is limited evidence that the health of a slightly obese child
is impaired, childhood obesity is linked with obesity later in
life (LeBow 1984). Not all fat children are destined to become
fat adults, but there is evidence that obesity which begins in
childhood is difficult to reverse.
Do you offer dessert only after the rest of the lunch is eaten?
Attaching a reward to dessert makes it seem more desirable. Dessert
should be treated as part of the meal. Fresh fruit is a good choice.
Read the list of ingredients on prepared food labels. Watch out
for sucrose (white, granulated table sugar) or other words ending
in "ose," especially if they are among the first four
ingredients listed. You may prefer using honey, but be aware that
it has the same number of calories as sucrose. Overuse of honey
can cause the same problems as excess use of other sugars. Caution:
You should never feed honey to infants younger than 12 months
of age because it could cause botulism.
Special foods, usually high in sugar and fats, are used to celebrate
many events birthdays, holidays, and other special events. Since
these foods can become powerful symbols for children, you might
try planning a party around events rather than food. A treasure
hunt, gift making party, group singing time, special trip, or
puppet show are all ways to celebrate which can reduce the focus
on food.
Tiny babies need to eat often (every two or three hours), so you need to schedule time to hold and feed them. You may be tempted to leave the baby propped up with a bottle for a few minutes. This practice is extremely dangerous because the baby could choke very easily. Also, if a baby is feeding lying down, a pool of milk can gather in the back of his mouth and nose and cause an inner ear infection. If you are called away during a feeding, put the bottle down and continue later.
Current research suggests the importance of delaying "solid
foods" until a baby is about four to six months old, and
then proceeding gradually. These studies show that babies don't
need solid foods and develop fewer food allergies if they're introduced
later. When solid foods are not digested properly, the baby's
body treats them as "foreign bodies."
Babies are old enough for solid foods when they can sit up well
with support, have good head and neck control, and can turn their
head away if they wish. This usually happens around age four to
six months. Most pediatricians now recommend starting solid food
no sooner than this. Also, by this time the infant has developed
appropriate tongue movement to move food to the back of the mouth
and swallow it. Giving solid foods before four to six months may
cause choking, since babies are not ready to swallow anything
except liquids.
Generally, the pattern for introducing solid foods goes as follows:
Appetite will vary from day to day, so don't make babies eat more
than they want to. For safety, don't give young babies foods that
are small, hard, round, or slippery. Even with toddlers, be wary
of bite-size foods, such as peanuts, raisins, whole grapes, hard
candy, raw carrots, or cut-up pieces of hot dogs. It's also dangerous
to let babies lie on their back with food in their mouth.
It's important to discuss an infant's feeding schedule and food
needs with the child's parents. If you plan ahead, you can encourage
breast feeding mothers to continue and can provide whatever support
is needed. Breast fed babies are often content without solid foods
until later. The goal is not to establish rigid eating patterns,
but to allow a baby to learn and experiment.
Here is a sample meal pattern to use as a guideline:
| Meal: | 6 - 12 months: | 12 months: |
| Breakfast | Iron-fortified cereal Fruit Egg yolk Formula/milk |
Iron-fortified cereal Fruit Toast Milk |
| Snack | Juice or water Toast or finger food |
Juice or water Toast or finger food |
| Lunch | Meat Vegetable Formula/milMilk |
Meat, cheese, or egg Vegetable Fruit Milk |
| Snack | Juice Crackers or finger food |
Milk or juice Finger food |
| Supper | Iron-fortified cereal Fruit Formula/milk |
Meat, cheese, or egg Starchy vegetable/bread Green/yellow vegetable Fruit Milk |
| Bedtime | Formula/milk | Juice or water |
A one-year-old needs about 1,000 calories a day. A three-year-old
needs only 300 to 500 more calories. You can expect a child's
appetite to decrease markedly around one year of age, which makes
sense when you realize their greatly reduced growth rate. A toddler
may not need as much food as an infant. In fact, a child's appetite
may decrease and fluctuate greatly up to age four and beyond.
Remember that each child is different. During periods of rapid
growth, it's hard to "fill 'em up." It's often just
as hard to interest a child in eating during a slow growth period.
A major food goal is to help children learn to like all kinds
of nutritious foods. Provide a variety from the four food groups
and support their food choices. The food best suited to supply
the needed nutrients is milk (breast and formula), closely followed
by meats, legumes, vegetables, fruits and grains. Contact your
county Extension office for a listing, by food group, of required
servings per day for each age group (one to three years, four
to five years, and six to 12 years.)
For meats, fruits, and vegetables, a recommended serving is loosely
defined as one tablespoon per year of age. So for a four-year-old,
a serving of meat, fruit, or vegetable would be four tablespoons,
or 1/4 cup. Serving sizes adjust as the child grows older, but
these recommendations are good from age two on.
We all like some foods more than others and vary in the amounts
that we eat. It's best to respect a child's ability to know her
own needs. One provider gives small servings followed by seconds
and even thirds, if children want them. This works and eliminates
a lot of food waste.
For children younger than eight years of age, a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack is recommended. Young children have smaller stomachs than adults and use more energy, so they need to eat more often. Snacks should have nutritional value and can be included as part of the daily requirements for the four food groups. Surprisingly, they don't interfere with appetites when they're served well before mealtime. The following are some snack suggestions.
Juices: Apple, grape, orange, cranberry, pineapple, and tomato.
Fruits: Peeled pieces of raw apples, pears, peaches, banana slices,
and small pieces of melon.
Vegetables: Small pieces of cooked, soft carrots, squash, potatoes,
and broccoli.
Breads: Crackers, toast pieces, breadsticks, and dry cereal (non-sugar
coated kinds, such as Spoon-Size Shredded Wheat, Cheerios, Wheat
Chex, and corn flakes).
Meats: Small cubes of soft, cooked chicken, or peanut butter on
crackers or toast.
Milk: Yogurt, milk, strips of processed cheese, or small cubes
of hard lowfat cheese.
If children can't chew food completely it's easy to choke, so
have children sit upright before you give them snacks. Bite-sized
pieces of food, about a 1/4-inch in diameter, minimize the chances
of choking.
Juices: Both fruit and vegetable made with frozen pureed fruit
or fruit juices.
Fruits: Raw, canned, or dried apple wedges; applesauce; orange
or grapefruit slices; melon chunks; seedless grapes; chunks of
fresh pineapple (children enjoy the experience of seeing how a
fresh pineapple is cut); berries (in season); fresh grapes; raisins;
fresh plums; and prunes (compare prices).
Raw vegetables: Try using cucumbers, celery, carrots, tomato pieces,
green peppers, turnip sticks, cauliflower, broccoli, avocado,
zucchini wedges, peas in a pod to shell, or green beans to snap.
Have children help you to prepare raw vegetables. It's a great
learning experience and heightens their excitement about the foods.
Breads: Whole-wheat crackers, graham crackers, bread sticks, toast,
French toast points, dry cereal pieces (of the non-sugar coated
kinds), bran muffins, and homemade pretzels and fruit breads (orange,
banana, and date). Unbuttered popcorn is another possibility,
but make sure children are seated before serving popcorn.
Milk: Milk and milkshakes or blended drinks made with mashed bananas
or orange juice. Cheese cubes and ice milk. Lowfat products are
best.
Meat: Cubes of cooked ham, cheese, beef, peanut butter on crackers
and vegetables, shelled nuts, hard-cooked eggs, even leftover
pizza!
Making foods look appealing is an important part of getting
children to enjoy eating. Here are some suggestions on making
food look good.
1. Texture: Include a mixture of soft, crunchy, and chewy
textures. By age two, a child can chew many foods, but may have
difficulty with apple peels. By age three, there are few foods
that a child can't eat.
2. Color: Even a baby is attracted to bright colors. Children
enjoy foods of different colors. Imagine a lunch of baked chicken,
rice, yellow squash, and canned peaches. You could use green zucchini
squash and a red apple ring to add excitement to this meal.
3. Shape: Shapes are important to children. One care provider
noted that children wouldn't eat their favorite sandwiches when
she cut them in straight quarters rather than diagonal quarters
to make triangles. Pasta also comes in many unique shapes. If
children don't like macaroni, try spirals or spaghetti.
4. Flavor: Some foods have strong aromas and flavors while
others are mild. It was once thought that children didn't like
spicy foods, but pizza, tacos, and Italian sandwiches prove otherwise.
If children object to the aroma of broccoli, cabbage, and turnips,
try serving these strong-flavored vegetables raw.
One of the most important ingredients in having children eat
and enjoy foods is your patience. Allow them to do for themselves.
Self-feeding requires skillful coordination, so the learning process
involves a lot of spills and mess. Children develop these skills
in their own time. You can help by watching for signs of readiness.
Between seven and 10 months, a baby will have graduated to a high
chair, which makes mealtime easier. Let the baby have finger foods
while others are eating. A one-year-old will begin to use a spoon
and can drink from a cup with help. By age two and three, children
continue to use their fingers and a spoon, but can handle a cup
by themselves. Bowls work better than plates, since children can
push their food against the curved edges. Unbreakable dishes make
good sense. Cups with spouts and large, easy-to-grasp handles
can make a difference, as can the appropriate utensils. Spoons
with thick handles and forks with short tines (like salad forks)
help develop feeding skills. If all goes well, by age three or
four children can feed themselves without any assistance.
Even though appetites vary, on active days children will be hungrier,
so their amount of physical activity is a clue to how hungry they'll
be. The mealtime environment depends on your understanding and
acceptance of food preferences. But don't forget, appetite can
also be affected when a child isn't feeling well, so check for
signs of illness.
Here are some guidelines to help you cut down on "plate waste."
How safe is the food in your day care home? By practicing cleanliness,
you can prevent food poisoning. Proper food cleaning and handling
prevents the growth of harmful bacteria (salmonella, streptococcus)
that cause illness. (Vomiting, diarrhea, headache, and fever are
some of the signs of food poisoning.)
The ideal temperature for bacteria to grow is anywhere between
45 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. An ideal place for bacteria to
grow is in food-especially moist, low-acid, high-protein food,
such as cream-filled pies, meat, gravy, milk, eggs, and dishes
containing eggs.
Other kinds of food poisoning are caused by harmful chemicals
and metals. Food may be covered with residues of pesticides or
come in contact with cleansers, lead, or other chemicals in your
home.
Here are some of the ways to prevent food poisoning and illness:
1. Keep hands and cooking tools clean. Wash your hands before
handling food. Wipe off the tops of cans before opening them.
Wash countertops, tables, chopping blocks, knives, and other equipment
with soap and water after each use. To kill bacteria, clean work
surfaces and utensils with a chlorine bleach solution and air
dry.
2. Keep hot foods hot (105 degrees Fahrenheit or higher) and cold
foods cold (40 degrees Fahrenheit or lower). Put thermometers
in your refrigerator and freezer and check them frequently.
3. Refrigerate foods immediately. When storing leftovers, place
them in shallow, covered containers in the refrigerator. Most
leftovers should be used within three or four days. When in doubt
about whether or not a food is safe, throw it out.
4. Do not store pesticides or cleaning supplies in the same area
that food is stored. Wash all fresh fruits and vegetables. Use
only pasteurized milk and milk products.
Some final cautions: Thaw frozen meats, poultry, and fish
in the refrigerator and thaw only the amounts needed for one day's
use. When feeding babies, transfer the food to their bowl and
offer bites only from the bowl. Promptly refrigerate the rest
of the jar. Saliva introduced into a jar will quickly spoil its
contents. Baby food fruits will keep up to about three days. Vegetables
and meat should be discarded after two days.
It's a rare day when you don't spend time preparing food for
children. Why not involve them? The kitchen is an ideal setting
for learning new skills, such as coordination, math, science,
creativity, and developing self-confidence.
The meals children help prepare often take on special meaning
for them. Although it may take patience and humor on your part,
the payoffs are great when children are in your kitchen crew.
However, this is a time when it's especially important to match
the child's skills with the appropriate activity. If a child can
actually do the task, he'll find it meaningful and rewarding.
If you have high expectations of never having a mess - a broken
egg or even a baking failure - then you can expect to lose the
enthusiasm of a budding cook.
Planning ahead for meaningful involvement with children can make
a difference between calm and chaos. It also gives you a chance
to talk, and work, yet still supervise the younger children. Washing
and tearing the greens of the salad, or supervised cutting of
fruits for dessert foster cooperation.
If you don't like to cook, the company can make it more enjoyable.
It's much easier to work with children for 10 to 30 minutes than
to work by yourself for an hour, while children whine or pull
at your skirt. Although it takes twice as long to cook with children
the fun of a shared experience will be remembered and relayed
to parents.
Two-year-olds can snap string beans, tear lettuce, wash salad
greens, form hamburgers and play with utensils. Their attention
span will last about ten minutes, so whether it's cooking or cleaning,
be prepared for very brief involvement.
Three-year-olds can crack eggs (after some practice), squeeze
lemons (especially if you "zap" the whole lemon one
minute in a microwave to increase the juice flow), grind cooked
apples in a food mill for applesauce, use a brush to scrub vegetables,
help husk corn and shape yeast dough into interesting shapes.
Four-year-olds can cut parsley or green onions with scissors,
cut cucumbers with a serrated table knife, measure some ingredients
(with careful supervision), and mix food together. Spreading soft
toppings at this age is also a big accomplishment. If a child
can put sand in a pail, he can put flour in a measuring cup. Peeling
hard-cooked eggs, oranges, or bananas are also possible for a
four-year-old, thanks to increased finger dexterity.
By age five, children can do most anything, including supervised
cutting with blunt knives. They can really be a help-providing
your expectations are realistic!
Be prepared to spend time explaining kitchen safety to young children.
They seem to forget from one project to the next. The rule is
to always wash children's hands before you start cooking.
Singing familiar songs about food adds another dimension to mealtimes. Such familiar favorites as "On Top of Spaghetti," a song about a lost meatball, "Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow," "I Found a Peanut," "Ten Bottles of Milk on the Shelf," and many others are fun for children. Try "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," using a variety of vegetables for a change to this old favorite. One provider told about singing "I Know an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly" in the midst of a disjointed lunch time, much to children's surprise. It was a delightful success and singing became a fun part of every lunch. Camp counselors have used this technique for years. (Check the resource section for a songbook and cassette called "Take a Bite of Music, It's Yummy.")
Most providers don't take children grocery shopping, but sometimes a trip to the supermarket with children can add special interest to food. Buying fresh spinach for lunch, for example, can make eating it less stressful. Plan ahead and have a parent volunteer help you. Also, consider visiting one of the following:
One provider took her children to an ice cream plant, watched
their fascination as the liquid ice cream evolved, and shared
their fun in sampling the final product.
Gathering specific foods on a tray can make children aware
of differences (for example, apples can be red, yellow, and green).
Further, a variety of similarly colored foods can help to introduce
new ones. Green grapes, cucumbers, lettuce, cabbage, parsley,
broccoli, green peppers, and avocados could be used to create
a "green tray." One provider gave her charges a variety
of melons to try (in the summer, when they were seasonably priced).
You could also investigate how many different ways you can serve
a fruit. Oranges, for instance, can be squeezed for juice, served
in slices, mixed with other fruit, baked as orange muffins or
bread, or served in a sauce for ham.
As children get better at slicing and dicing, they may be ready
for soup making fun. To heighten their interest, read the book
Stone Soup, by Marcia Brown. This is a French tale about hungry
soldiers tricking villagers into adding all kinds of vegetables
to a pot of boiling water and a stone. You can create a "stone
soup" too, with turnips, cabbage, potatoes, onions, carrots,
seasonings, and other good things. Any basic vegetable soup recipe
will produce a delicious luncheon soup, but the important part
is starting with boiling water and the stone. Children's success
rate will be better if they are assigned to dice a soft potato
or cut cabbage leaves into small pieces.
Here are some other books that can add new meaning to food experiences:
Apple Pigs by Ruth Orbach
Apples and How They Grow by Bruce McMillan
Benny Bakes a Cake by Eve Rice
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban
The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
Chicken Soup with Rice and In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
Jack and the Beanstalk (There are several authors. We recommend
the one by Lorrinda Bryan Cauley)
My Friend the Cow by Lois Lenski
Pancakes, Pancakes, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Popcorn by Tommy DePaola
The Story of Johnny Appleseed by John Chapman
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
The Turnip by Janina Domanska
What a Good Lunch by Shigeo Watanabe
Don't forget to extend an invitation to parents to do some
specialty cooking with children. The Chinese New Year is usually
celebrated in mid- to late January, when everyone can use a boost.
Demonstrating how to stir-fry and having children help you is
a wonderful way to celebrate this event. Similarly, the Jewish
celebration of Hanukkah can inspire parents to share ethnic recipes,
such as potato pancakes. One provider cared for an Asian child
and was delighted when the child's mother taught the children
how to make Cambodian noodles.
Oklahoma State University extends credit to Jane S. Harvey,
state coordinator of child care for the University of Maine Cooperative
Extension Service, for authorship of some of the content of this
publication.