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Establishing healthy behaviours from birth lays the foundation for lifelong health and wellbeing. Eating healthy food and engaging in regular physical activity or movement supports children's normal growth and development.
Playgroup offers an opportunity to help families and children understand how important healthy lifestyle habits are, especially for children. As a facilitator, you can help support children and families to develop healthy habits.
Healthy eating
The Australian Dietary Guidelines gives advice on the amount and types of foods we need to eat for health and wellbeing.
Childhood is a time of learning. Children who grow up in families that enjoy a variety of nutritious foods from the Five Food Groups are more likely to make their own healthy choices as they get older.
The basic food groups
Foods from the basic food groups provide the nutrients essential for life and growth. These foods are also known as ‘everyday foods’. Each of the food groups provides a range of nutrients, and all have a role in helping the body function.
The basic food groups are:
- Vegetables and legumes/beans
- Fruit
- Grain (cereal) foods, mostly wholegrain and high-fibre varieties, such as breads, cereals, rice, pasta, noodles, polenta, couscous, oats, quinoa and barley
- Lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds, and legumes/beans
- Milk, yoghurt, cheese and alternatives, mostly reduced-fat (reduced-fat milks are not suitable for children under 2 years).
Support families to encourage children to:
- choose ‘everyday foods’
- eat to their own appetites
- develop positive attitudes toward selecting food
- enjoy eating.
Dietary guidelines and resources
Use these 'raising children' resources to help children understand dietary guidelines:
- dietary guidelines for children 1 to 2 years
- dietary guidelines for children 2 to 3 years
- dietary guidelines for children 4 to 8 years
For more information also see:
- General feeding guidelines for babies and toddlers
- Feeding Toddlers – Parent Easy guide
- Healthy Eating and physical activity for early childhood – Get Up & Grow
- Healthy Eating habits for children – Raising Children
Eating together: the benefits
Children learn a lot by watching their parents and other adults around them. It's a good idea for adults to sit with children at snack time and role model healthy eating behaviours.
Encourage parents to provide fruit, vegetables and other healthy foods from the food groups as playgroup snack options.
Foods identified with allergies should be avoided as a playgroup snack.
Flexibility and safety
There can be some flexibility when it comes to snack times at playgroups. You may choose to:
- have a designated snack time as part of your playgroup routine
- allow children to access their snacks throughout the session so they can eat when hungry or ready.
To ensure children’s safety, children and parents must be seated at all times while eating.
Access to drinking water
Water is essential for many important bodily functions, including digestion, absorption of nutrients and elimination of waste products.
Young children in particular can become dehydrated quickly and should have access to drinking water at all times.
Talk to parents and carers about bringing a water bottle for themselves and their children to playgroup. Encourage regular opportunities as part of the playgroup routine for children and adults to have a drink.
Where possible, make sure drinking water is available for families to access.
Hygiene
Encouraging good hygiene at playgroup reinforces positive hygiene habits to both parents and children. It helps minimise the spread of disease and illness.
Reinforce to families that children cannot attend playgroup if they or their parent or carer is unwell.
Setting hygiene rules with children and providing positive feedback and support will help children develop personal hygiene skills.
Hygiene strategies to consider at playgroup may be:
- supporting adults to model thorough handwashing and drying practices
- encouraging children to follow appropriate handwashing practices
- ensuring equipment and toys are regularly cleaned and are well maintained
- keeping facilities clean, including bathrooms, kitchens and play areas
- using appropriate toileting and nappy change methods
- using appropriate procedures for wiping children’s noses, or teaching children how to do it themselves (if age appropriate)
- displaying signs and posters about hygiene procedures at child height in bathrooms and play areas
- implementing appropriate food handling, preparation and storage practices
- providing written information to families about the recommended immunisation schedule for children
- developing clear procedures for handling and disposing of bodily fluids, such as blood, and any contaminated items used in first aid
- providing written information to families on exclusion periods of illness and infectious diseases.
You can share the Starting Blocks factsheet on hygiene at home with families.
Physical Activity
Most children find it fun to play and be active. Encouraging opportunities for physical activity at playgroup is important and can help set the foundation for healthy habits in later years.
Playgroup is an ideal place to develop good physical activity habits and influence the behaviours of families. Parents, facilitators and carers can work together to share the responsibility of making physical activity a priority both at playgroup and at home.
For children 5 and under, active play is the best form of physical activity. Active play involves all types of play – both indoor and outdoor, ‘active transport’ (such as walking to a destination, rather than driving or using a stroller) and certain everyday tasks. Children also need some time for quieter activities and down -time.
Active play has physical and health benefits, but it also helps important social, language and brain development.
For more information also see the following Get Up & Grow resources:
