Health in Early Education

Learning Resources

Required Resources

Course Text:

• Safety, Nutrition, and Health in Early Education (5th ed.)
• • Chapter 6, “Basic Nutrition in Early Childhood Education Environments” (pp. 212−250)
  • Chapter 8, “Providing Good Nutrition for Diverse Children” (pp. 290−330)

Note: Peruse the following Web sites and online articles. You will need to refer to these resources when completing your Discussion and Application Assignment.

Web Sites:

• Fruits and Veggies: More Matters
  http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/
• USDA Healthy Meals Resource System: Nutrition Education
  (This page provides links to several helpful Web sites on child nutrition and fitness.)
  http://healthymeals.nal.usda.gov/resource-library/nutrition-education
• University of Illinois Extension: Food for Thought: Ideas for Parents of Preschoolers
  http://urbanext.illinois.edu/foodforthought/
• USDA Food and Nutrition Service: State Agencies Administering the Child Nutrition Programs
  http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Contacts/StateDirectory.htm

Articles:

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2000, November). Nutrition and overweight. In Healthy people 2010 (2nd ed.) (Vol. 2). Retrieved from www.healthypeople.gov/2010/Document/pdf/Volume2/19Nutrition.pdf
• Bellows, L., & Anderson, J. (2006, May). The food friends: Encouraging preschoolers to try new foods. Beyond the Journal: Young Children on the Web. Retrieved from the Walden Library Using this link: http://auth.waldenulibrary.org/ezpws.exe?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1038789371&sid=1&Fmt=4&clientId=70192&RQT=309&VName=PQD
  Obstacles to Good Nutrition

  Children in the United States face significant obstacles to good nutrition. This is due in part to the increased consumption of fast food.

  Review Chapter 6 in your text, particularly the section titled “Reality Check: How Is America Eating: Do We Fulfill Our Nutritional Needs?” as well as the articles and Web sites listed in this week’s Learning Resources. Drawing on these resources, what you have learned in the course so far, and your own observations of current lifestyle trends, consider the following:

  •  
  • Current obstacles to good nutrition for young children

  • Knowledge and approaches adults committed to the well-being of children can take to overcome these obstacles

  With these thoughts in mind:

  By Day 3:

  Post a response to the following:

  • Identify at least two obstacles to good nutrition for young children and social, economic, and/or historical forces that have brought about or contributed to these obstacles.

  • Describe how early childhood advocates and professionals might offset/overcome these obstacles.