For Health Professionals Support the movement to help our kids become confident, adventurous eaters
Health professionals are aware that this generation of children are growing up in a time of extreme diet culture, body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. We see the impacts every day in our clinics, and hear stories from children and parents that concern us. There is a need for schools to create safe and empowering food environments in schools, and Health Professionals can help. But many of us struggle to find time for activities that are not part of our core business, and the problems seem a bit big for any of us to tackle on our own.
So let’s do it together.
Our goal is to support parents and teachers to advocate for positive change in their own schools, while amplifying the work of existing programs. Working together, there are lots of ways we can support children to become confident, adventurous eaters.
Where to start?
We invite you to read and co-sign the open letter to schools to add your name to the growing list of professionals asking for positive and evidence-based change.
You can also access our Evidence Summary to support your clients with requests for change in their schools.
Dear Educators,
Thank you for your commitment to supporting the growth and development of our children. We appreciate that schools are dedicated to promoting good health and we understand the complexities and challenges of working in this space.
We are writing to raise our concerns about some emerging trends in how schools approach food and eating behaviours. These include:
- School policies that prohibit certain foods for ‘health’ reasons
- Recommendations that parents only supply ‘healthy’ foods and nothing else
- Teachers and other members of staff policing lunchboxes and dictating eating behaviours. This includes:
a) Preventing children from eating supplied foods when the food is regarded as ‘unhealthy’
b) Only allowing certain foods to be eaten at certain breaks (eg only fruit and veg at recess)
c) Conducting lunchbox audits or other food checklists
d) Insisting that children eat particular amounts of food from their lunchbox
e) Determining the order of consumption of foods (eg sandwiches must be eaten before yoghurt)
Although these activities are well-intended, they have significant long-term consequences. Practises such as these foster a fear of food and increase the rates of fussy, restrictive and other disordered eating behaviours in children (1-4). They increase the stress and anxiety of parents around the provision of food (5,6), and unintentionally disrupt household eating patterns (7). Additionally, they disproportionately affect children with disabilities, those with feeding or sensory challenges, those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse populations (8).
Thank you for considering this proposal. We appreciate your desire to do the best for your students.
Dr Kyla Smith, APD, AN
Paediatric Dietitian
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Mealtimes What is happening?
School and Family Mealtimes are online services that aim to support school-aged children to become confident, adventurous eaters. Within the Family Mealtimes membership, parents are empowered to create positive mealtime experiences for the whole family at home. At the same time, School Mealtimes aims to change school policy and support teachers to create safe and empowering school food environments.
