September is Family Meals month

This is a great opportunity to re-start family style meal service in your child care, if you haven’t yet!

Caring for Our Children (CFOC), the national best practice standards, states, “Family style meal service, with the serving platters, bowls, and pitchers on the table so all present can serve themselves, should be encouraged, except for infants and very young children who require an adult to feed them.” CFOC Standards Database | National Resource Center (nrckids.org)

Join the family meals month movement - 2022-nfmm-fact-sheet.pdf (fmi.org)

A recent study (published in the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics) confirms results of past studies showing a positive link between mealtime practices and food acceptance by children. Different from other studies, this one interviewed early learning educators to find out their perception of mealtime practices and how well children eat. The early learning educators identified 3 key attributes to the most successful mealtimes: 

1. Sitting with children during mealtimes and role modeling eating the same foods the children receive.
2.  Serving “family style” (definition varied for providers) and believing the foods served were healthy choices. 
3. The educators also believed that engaging in some elements of family style food service and allowing children to choose the foods they ate, resulted in a happier, more relaxed mealtime where children ate more and also conversed more. 

The educators also identified mealtime as an opportunity to build children’s vocabulary and address emotions. 

Although serving family style meals is only one element of creating a healthy mealtime in child care, it can be very rewarding for children. Serving family style includes passing at least some of the foods around the table, some of the time. With supervision, children learn to pass a plate or bowl to the child next to them. Adults help facilitate this practice a number of different ways. 

Walking around with the bowl and providing hand assists is a good strategy to introduce the practice. 

Sitting in between children and giving verbal directions can be very effective at keeping the children on task.

Even putting a bowl of one or two of the foods in the middle of the table for second servings allows children to make at least some of their own food choices. 

Children enjoy using the serving utensils and tend to serve themselves a food they may not otherwise consider eating. Children can learn how to pass foods safely and without making a mess!

Please be aware of current illness levels in your community when deciding practices that are best for your facility. 

THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN VISITING PETTING ZOOS

Petting zoos are popular spots for children during the fall. While learning about animals and how to interact with them is fun and valuable, it’s also important to remember that animals can expose children to potentially serious illnesses. E. coli, salmonella, giardia, and worms are among the 30-plus diseases that can be spread by animals. Even animals that appear healthy can have germs in their hair or fur, mouth, manure, drinking water, or habitat. Assume every animal is carrying germs that could make you ill. Children are at a higher risk from these pathogens than adults. They are also more likely to put their hands in their mouths and not wash their hands well enough.  Some children also may have allergic reactions to animals.

Keep children (and adults) healthy when interacting with animals by following these tips:

• Make sure there are washing stations that are easily accessible and stocked with soap and warm water.
• Wash hands thoroughly with soap and running water after touching an animal or going into an animal’s living space.
• Eat snacks or meals before petting the animals or eat in an area that is separate from all animals, after washing hands thoroughly. 
• Make sure children are supervised and that they don’t attempt to kiss the animals, share food or toys with the animals, or put their fingers in their mouths after touching animals. 
• Approach animals with respect and caution, as even normally non-aggressive animals can be provoked into biting or scratching. 

Find the above Wash Hands When Leaving Animal Exhibits handout on the Food Safety Educational Resources page.

Also available is a free online training worth 2 hours of continuing education credits. Visit our online learning portal course catalog for more information.