A Unique Child: Nutrition - A quick bite?

Snacktime has taken on a whole new meaning in many nurseries in recent years. Previously, many overlooked snacktime, tending instead to focus their menu planning on lunch and teatimes. Now, and particularly since the launch of the Voluntary Food and Drink Guidelines for Early Years Settings in England last October, more settings have come to recognise the importance of healthy snacks in a child's diet, and made some major changes to what they offer.

Dr Aine O'Connor, nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF), says, 'Snacks are an important part of young children's diets. They need to eat little and often to meet their needs for physical activity and growth. Childcare settings should provide regular meals and snacks rich in nutrients and containing sufficient energy (calories), in order to keep the children going until teatime.'

WHAT TO OFFER

With the new focus on snacktime have come changes to the type and variety of food and drinks that settings provide. Claire Wall, nutritionist for the Children's Food Trust, explains, 'Providers have become more aware of the effect that eating sugary foods throughout the day has on children's teeth, and about the importance of avoiding sweet foods and drinks as part of snacks.

'We've seen a shift in the types of snacks provided by the nurseries that took part in our Eat Better, Start Better programme - avoiding drinks other than milk and water, sticking to fresh fruit rather than dried fruit, and providing a wider variety of different foods at snacktime.'

She advises, 'When planning snacks, nurseries should think about providing a variety of different foods, rather than the same things every day, to make sure children get the chance to try lots of different things. Writing down what you provide at snacktime as part of your weekly menu can help you to do this.'

When planning good choices of nutritious snacks:

• include a starchy food as part of at least one snack each day (mid-morning or mid-afternoon), such as crackers, breadsticks, rice cakes, oatcakes, matzos and Melba toast. This helps to ensure children are getting enough energy and carbohydrate from snacks. Some of these foods can be high in salt, so choose those that have less than 0.5g sodium per 100g where possible

• provide a variety of white, brown, wholemeal, granary or crusty breads, including toast, crumpets, English muffins, bagels, pitta bread or sandwiches. Look for lower-salt (low-sodium) versions where available. Suitable fillings include cold roast meats, chicken, ham, corned beef, meat paste, cheese, cottage cheese, fish paste, mashed pilchards or sardines, tuna, egg, houmous, roast vegetables, banana, salad, or combinations of these

• avoid savoury snacks such as crisps because they provide energy but few other nutrients and can be high in salt (something which many young children have too much of in their diets). Instead, try plain homemade popcorn

• offer fresh fruit such as pears, apple slices, satsumas, banana, seedless grapes, slices of melon, mango, pineapple, kiwi, plums (without stones), or berries, such as strawberries and raspberries. Avoid dried fruit between meals - the type of sugar in dried fruit and its sticky texture makes it more damaging to children's teeth than fresh fruit, so it is best to limit it to mealtimes

• provide raw vegetables, and choose a variety of these across the week. Try peeled carrots, sweet pepper, tomato, cucumber or celery (all well washed) paired with dips such as houmous or Greek yoghurt with chives

• provide foods like plain yoghurt with added fruit, fromage frais or cheese

• stick to milk or water only for drinks as these won't damage children's teeth and are a better choice between meals than fruit juice or other soft drinks

• avoid sweet foods, such as cake, biscuits and sweets. The more often children have sweet foods during the day, the more damage they are likely to do to their teeth.

GETTING INVOLVED

Practitioners should not miss out on the opportunity to encourage children to try out new tastes and flavours at snack time, explains Roy Ballam, education programme manager at the BNF.

He says, 'Involving children in the preparation of their own food - for example, spreading and assembling their own sandwiches, serving themselves yoghurt or pouring their own milk or water - will encourage them to try a range of different foods. We've worked with fussy eaters who devoured the mackerel pate that they made during a cooking session, much to their parents' surprise.'

The BNF supports nurseries across the UK and has a dedicated website, www.foodafactoflife.org.uk, with resources about healthy eating; cooking with three- to five-year-olds; tried-and-tested recipes for nurseries and information on where food comes from.

ORGANISATION

Snacktime not only introduces children to new foods but can also help them to develop table manners and social skills. Some settings now have a rolling snack policy, where snacks are available over an extended period of time for children to help themselves to when they are ready. With this approach, settings can ask children to choose a card or picture with their name on it, to put on a board or container to show that they have had a snack.

Ms Wall explains, 'It's important that children still sit down to eat and that they are supervised. This way, staff can keep track of which children have had something to eat and drink.'

MORE INFORMATION

• www.childrensfood trust.org.uk/assets/research-reports/ Eat BetterStartBetter EvaluationApril2013.pdf

• www.childrensfood trust.org.uk/assets/research-reports/ Pre-school%20food%20survey%20report%20-%20final.pdf

• Seasonal menus including snack ideas, www.childrensfoodtrust.org.uk/eatbetterstartbetter/examplemenus

• Eating Well for Under 5s in Childcare, www.cwt.org.uk/pdfs/Under5s.pdf

CASE STUDY: CARING KINDERGARTENS

Caring Kindergartens, a chain of six nurseries based in Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Cambridgeshire, overhauled its snack menu in 2010, after being involved in the national Nutrition in Nursery Schools survey (February 2010), run regionally by the Department of Health East Midlands and Northamptonshire County Council Trading Standards.

Head cook Lisa Morrison, who has been at the organisation for eight years, explains, 'We used to have some form of bread - mini sandwiches, muffins or pitta bread - on the snack menu once a day but the survey found that we had too much salt in the diet because of bread from snacks and toast alone.

'We've always prided ourselves on providing the children with homemade meals with fresh ingredients and no added salt. But after this, we looked at our overall nutritional values and committed to really understanding the ingredients that are beneficial to the children. We then had our main meals nutritionally analysed to ensure that our menus contain the best balance of health and nutrition.

'We have also provided a new snack menu and come up with healthier alternatives. I started making tiny scones and mini pizza bases with no added salt. Mini sandwiches are now served once a week in the mornings for snack time and once a week in the afternoons.

'Other examples of snack choices include fruit with natural yoghurt, mini assorted sandwiches with fruit, homemade cheese scones, homemade apricot and cranberry scones, fruit and oat biscuits, breadsticks with vegetable sticks, and homemade fruit milkshakes and smoothies.

'Children love to get involved in making food for snacks. They make the oat biscuits and the over-threes love to make their own sandwiches, selecting the content. At snacktime they sit at their tables and use the menu cards, which have a picture of the snack, to help them with their selections. We indicate how much of each type of food children may take, which helps to control portion sizes.

'We are introducing a new range of recipes for snacktime and across the whole menu, which will introduce new tastes to our children - for example, lavender will be introduced as a fruit smoothie for snack in the afternoon.'