Dietary Dilemmas: Solving the puzzle of early childhood nutrition

When it comes to fuelling great nutrition, today’s early childhood sector faces more challenges than ever. So, how do you provide quality meals, day after day, amid ever-increasing staff shortages, allergies and inflation?

Around half of Australian children aged between two and five years of age attend centre-based care for an average of 31 hours per week, or almost four (eight-hour) days. While there, they should receive about half their daily nutritional needs during morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea – and even more if eating breakfast and a late snack in long day care.

That’s a big ask, and the flow-on effects are significant.

Staff shortages – the great resignation

Staff vacancies in early childhood education and care have more than doubled in three years to reach record levels – and more than a quarter of Australia’s chefs were lost in the same period. Providing meals in early childhood services takes time and, in many cases, specialised skills. So it’s no surprise that these shortages, and the barriers to recruiting and retaining in-house chefs, make providing meals an intensifying headache for directors and educators alike.

The rise of allergies

Australian children have the highest prevalence of food allergy in the world. The incidence of severe food allergies has doubled just within the last ten years, so the experience of older generations differs significantly to what children, parents and early childhood educators must now manage. All that adds up to more stress for families –and childcare providers are at the frontline.

Rising food costs

Higher food prices have become the norm as the impact of COVID-19 and more frequent natural disasters put grocery supply chains under pressure. Prices of food and nonalcoholic beverages as a group increased to 9.3% in the 12 months to August 2022, with prices rising across most food categories. In addition, researchers have recently discovered that children attending early childhood services in regional, rural or disadvantaged areas of Queensland are less likely to be provided with meals, compared than those at centres in more affluent areas. Understandably, that can be about keeping costs down, however it often affects families who themselves find it hard to afford adequate amount of high-quality food for developing bodies.

What are the risks?

Food insecurity – or lack of access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food – can affect children’s health, development, behaviour and capacity to learn. Professor Karen Thorpe from the University of Queensland’s Brain Institute said recently that “without adequate nutrition it’s harder for children to learn and regulate their behaviour”.

As children are establishing their individual food preferences, what they eat now will also influence lifelong food habits and health. It is proven that poor dietary intake during childhood is likely to progress into adulthood and is linked to an increased risk of obesity and disease.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of Australian children do not meet the national recommendations for consumption of vegetables (99.6%) or lean meats and meat alternatives (99.3%); and girls under-consume dairy products (96.1%). Furthermore, Australian children receive almost 40% of their energy from discretionary foods and beverages, high in saturated fat, salt or sugars.

Keep in mind

So, with all these pressures, what should you keep in mind when considering your own meal and nutrition solution?

More than ever, confident and meticulous allergy management is critical – and that’s where modern technology is stepping up to the plate. Look for proven, complete and credible solutions that bring the peace of mind you need. For example, our own proprietary technology automatically analyses more than 107 allergen ingredients against individual dietary needs, generating tailored menu options including all their snacks with delicious, safe alternatives. All allergy-safe meals are individually sealed and labelled by child for peace of mind. Cross-contamination management in kitchens is a senior chef skillset and with increasing wages managing this risk appropriately is costly.

And with today’s critical staff shortages, investing in simplicity – ideally removing the need for specialised skills makes sense. Think easy heat-and-serve meals, clear instructions, complemented with fresh fruit, dairy and milk, and snacks – all pre-set in a daily menu. No need for commercial kitchens, professional kitchen staff, complex meal planning or worry about in-house chef absences. Most importantly, any children’s meal solution should be backed by expert understanding of specific nutritional needs and guidelines. Our menus are created by accredited practising dieticians alongside an expert team of chefs to balance optimal childhood nutrition with maximum appeal. They use fresh, natural ingredients to provide more than 50 per cent of a child’s recommended dietary requirements, more than half their daily serve of fruit and vegetables, and around 75 per cent recommended daily iron intake.

Finally, don’t be misled: new approaches don’t have to mean more expense. In fact, many of our client’s report saving up to $200 per day in labour costs as a result of using our meal solutions (based on cost modelling data for centres hiring full-time chefs).

There’s no doubt it’s all food for thought: but, rest assured, there are creative, high-quality and cost-effective solutions to today’s dietary dilemmas.

As an advocate for childhood nutrition and allergy management, we love sharing our expert advice and providing research-based support and information to caregivers and parents.

Check out our free resources at wellbeingfood.com.au