Food is an integral part of the way we celebrate and there are lots of opportunities for celebrations in Early Years Settings such as birthdays, festivals, religious celebrations, world food days and graduations. It’s important that while your celebrations need to be fun and memorable they need to follow your Startwell ethos. This means having a balance of food available that represents the Startwell menu guidelines and including opportunities for physical activity within your celebrations.
Think about the type of food you serve at celebrations. There should be a wide variety of foods served to ensure a good balance of all the food groups (fruit and vegetables; starchy carbohydrates; protein and iron rich foods and milk and dairy foods) as well as lots of opportunities to include the Startwell characters. Fay 5 a Day loves to eat fruit and vegetables whatever the occasion and Micky wants to make sure we eat the right portion size for our age. Suzy Startwell wants us to role model healthy eating and physical activity to the children and families.
It is also important to avoid using food based rewards. This means not offering pudding as a reward for eating up their savoury foods. Using food as a reward or withholding food as punishment can be damaging psychologically and can lead to longer term issues with food such as a decreased ability to self-regulate food intake and increased emotional eating*. Non-food rewards include verbal praise, stickers, books, choosing a party game/music, small gifts etc.
Remember healthy celebration food should be the norm. There are lots of ways that you can present food in fun and exciting ways. Have a look at the Startwell Pinterest board ‘Celebration Food’ for ideas. As well as food, there should still be opportunities for physical activity during your celebrations. 180 Katie loves to move fast and a party is a great excuse to do this, no party is complete without some party games! Lots of classic party games involve high intensity movement so make sure you get the music playing and get moving.
For more great game ideas see our December Pinterest Board.
* The mediating role of child self-regulation of eating in the relationship between parental use of food as a reward and child emotional overeating
Powell, Elisabeth M. a, Frankel, Leslie A. a, ∗Hernandez, Daphne C. a, b a University of Houston, Department of Psychological, Health and Learning Sciences, 491 Farish Hall, Houston, TX 77204,United States b University of Houston, Department of Health & Human Performance, 3875 Garrison Gym, Room 104, Houston, TX 77204, United States. In Appetite 1 June 2017 113:78-83
