Nursery World - Nursery Management: Nutrition

Parents of overweight children are often in denial about the problem or claim to be simply too busy to address it – so how should settings approach the issue? Gabriella Jozwiak finds out

One in ten children is obese by the time they start primary school aged four. And it doesn’t stop there. By the time children turn into adults, the proportion of those classified as overweight or obese is 63 per cent.

We all know that instilling healthy eating habits early is the best way to set up children for a lifetime of healthy choices. But what can practitioners do if parents are in denial about their children’s health, or think they are too busy to ‘do’ healthy?

Talking to parents about their toddlers’ diets can be challenging. Research published in 2016 by Newcastle University found parents can be defensive when settings offer healthy-eating advice. The study of 15 parents revealed they felt they were being ‘told what to do’ or ‘that they are bad parents. Research associate Lorraine McSweeney says the best way to overcome a ‘them and us’ mentality is for nurseries to adopt an integrated approach to healthy eating.

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