Eat smart, play smart

According to the most recent available statistics available from the ABS, over 15 percent of Australia’s school children aged 5 -11 years now attend Out of School Hours Care (OSHC).

The Heart Foundation recognised that it was timely to turn the spotlight onto OSHC and have produced Eat Smart, Play Smart – a manual for out of school hours care. It contains delicious recipes to prepare and games to play (both indoors and out) to help OSCH staff meet federal government guidelines on nutrition and physical activity.

Ask whether your OSHC staff has a copy as feedback from those programs using the manual has been enthusiastic. There are now more than 800 programs using the manual, reaching 40,000 school children. Parents too will find many helpful tips and suggestions that can be used at home.

It’s now well recognised that children who are active and enjoy health eating will usually have a healthy body weight. And while the figure of one-in-four children considered overweight or obese is common currency, the answer is not to put such children onto a ‘diet’.

The Heart Foundation recommends that children should be encouraged to be more physically active and to limit their intake of high energy snacks such as chocolate, potato crisps, deep fried foods, confectionery and soft drinks.

If a child appears to be overweight, don’t single them out as being different to other children. Being treated this way can cause low self-esteem and lack of confidence.

• A child who is genuinely overweight needs help from a professional such as an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) or paediatrician.
• Parents and carers should never restrict food intake, as inadequate food can lead to poor physical and mental development.
• As far as possible, the emphasis is on maintaining, rather than losing, weight and allowing the child to ‘grow into’ their weight.

Children and their body image have also become a side issue in the nutrition debate. Like adults, children can be influenced by the concept of the ‘ideal’ body shapes and sizes for males and females, which then influences their perception of their bodies and value as a person.

The way children perceive their bodies can affect their food intake, the way they perceive their abilities and hence their health, so it’s very important for children to understand their own body and learn about the physical changes that occur as part of growing up.

The emphasis to children should be that body shape is inherited and no amount of physical activity and dieting will change its basic shape. We often make comments about Johnny or Jane having Mum’s eyes or Dad’s face shape – extending that to casual comments on height, torso shape or leg length will encourage a sense of recognition and identifying with the extended family ‘look’.

The aim is to develop normal eating habits and feel relaxed and comfortable with food, and not feel guilty and afraid to eat for fear of putting on weight.

If you think your child has a weight problem, seek professional advice.

Top 5 tips to a healthy body weight and body image

1. Encourage children to enjoy healthy eating and to be physically active.
2. Be positive role models for healthy eating and physical activity – have plenty of healthy food choices available and participate in fun activities as a family.
3. Try to avoid making comments about body weight in general. Focus more on growth and less on scales. Weighing children who are already conscious of their weight can make them feel more uncomfortable.
4. Focus on improved fitness, health and having fun rather than on weight and food restriction.
5. Don’t force children to ‘exercise’ or participate in activities that they do not enjoy – this can result in a negative attitude to physical activity throughout life.

Games

This activity can be adapted for the whole family to try at home and has the advantage of not requiring any particular sporting skills.

Climb a Mountain

• Intensity: high
• Equipment: stairs, graph paper
• Get children to do ‘step ups’ or walk up and down a staircase, counting the number of steps they accumulate.
• Encourage children not to run downstairs, and emphasise safety during this activity.
• Don’t forget to remind the children to step softly and place their whole foot on the step. An upward thrust of the arms can help lift the body up the steps.
• For competent climbers you could suggest sideways steps and second step climbs.
• Climbing in time with music might inspire some children to make up a routine using the steps.
• Keep track of the combined steps travelled by everyone in the group on a wall chart. You could draw a mountain on graph paper and get children to colour in squares for the number of steps they took that day.
• The aim is to colour in all the squares – then you’ve collectively ‘climbed the mountain’.
• As an added incentive why not plan a collective treat once the group (or family) has ‘climbed the mountain’ eg a visit to an adventure park or a new piece of sports equipment.

Beany Melts

Preparation Time 10-2 minutes • Cooking Time 15 minutes • Serves 4

In this tasty recipe, baked beans are jazzed up with vegies and a touch of chilli. They are then baked with a cheesy topping on English-style muffins to make a full-flavoured snack on the run!

Ingredients

2 spring onions
1/2 small capsicum
1/2 425g can salt-reduced baked beans
1/3 cup frozen sweet corn
1 and 1/2 teaspoons sweet chilli sauce
2 English-style muffins
4 tablespoons grated reduced fat
cheddar cheese
Pinch coarsely ground black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
2. Wash the spring onions and capsicum and pat dry with paper towels.
3. Using a small sharp knife, cut the root end off the spring onions.
4. Slice the spring onions, including most of the green tops, and put them in the mixing bowl.
5. Cut the capsicum into small squares and add them to the bowl.
6. Add the baked beans, sweet corn and sweet chilli sauce and mix with the wooden spoon.
7. Arrange the muffin halves on the baking tray.
8. Using the metal dessert spoon, spoon the baked bean mixture on top of the four muffin halves and spread out evenly on each one.
9. Sprinkle each muffin with 1 tablespoon grated cheese and a little pepper.
10. Arrange on the baking trays.
11. Bake in oven until they are completely heated through and the cheese is a light golden brown (about 15 minutes).
12. Serve at once.

For more recipes, games and activities, visit The Heart Foundation and follow the ‘for kids’ link.

The National Heart Foundation of Australia (Victorian Division), supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing and the Telstra Foundation, has been working with the Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) sector for several years on the OSHC Nutrition and Physical Activity project.

As part of the project, the resource Eat Smart, Play Smart – A Manual for Out of School Hours Care has been developed. The manual focuses on fun, healthy ideas that can be easily incorporated into OSHC programs with the aim to encourage children to enjoy food preparation, healthy eating and physical activity on a daily basis. To order your copy, visit The Heart Foundation or call Heartline on 1300 36 27 87.

This article was first published in Australian Family Magazine, October 2005. Updated July 2009.