How do you create effective food and nutrition experiences for young children?
- Barbara J. Mayfield, MS, RDN, LD, FAND
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
The photo above was taken in the 1990s when the Food Guide Pyramid was part of our dietary guidance. Notice the pyramid on the wall, on the floor, on my apron… So many pyramids. This later became MyPlate, and our pyramid visual aids were thrown away. In 2026, MyPlate had a similar fate.
Over the years, we may use different tools to teach, but the principles of effective nutrition education are timeless. Let’s explore what those are.
In this week’s post, I will share what I believe are the three most important concepts children need to be exposed to and the three overarching principles of teaching young children.
In next week’s post, I will share the building blocks for creating effective nutrition experiences for young children.
Three essential food and nutrition concepts for young children:
1. Instill in young children the enjoyment of food and eating, via:
experiencing and enjoying food preparation
exploring and trying new foods
in a supportive environment with positive role models
This goal of enjoying food and eating seems so basic, so fundamental, but unfortunately a lot of children do not enjoy eating, and it is a very negative experience.
With young children, learning about food and nutrition is largely experiencing food – where it comes from, how it is prepared, and exploring it with all of the senses, without pressure to taste it or eat it.
Making eating a positive experience happens largely because of the environment we provide and the attitude toward food and eating that we role model. Parents and caregivers can enhance a healthy relationship with food and eating by shopping together, cooking together, and providing regular, family-style meals and snacks.
Most of all, we promote a healthy relationship with food and eating by role modeling healthy behaviors. This is learning that is “caught” rather than “taught.” It happens because it is what they see and experience, so it becomes a part of how they view the world.
2. Develop a healthy body image and learn about self-care, via:
appreciating and learning about their amazing body
learning and practicing good hygiene habits
in an accepting and nonjudgmental environment
One of the most important things we can role model is a healthy opinion about our bodies. If we take good care of ourselves and don’t say derogatory statements about how we look, the children around us will feel better about themselves too.
If children hear others talking negatively about someone who is larger and learn that it is shameful to be fat, they will fear weight in an unhealthy way. The statistics on how many young children are putting themselves on diets and exhibiting disordered eating are very sobering. However, a child who feels good about themselves is more likely to feed themselves well and enjoy moving their body.
Children also enjoy learning how to take care of themselves – things like washing their hands, brushing their teeth, etc. Promote pride in caring for themselves, not pressure to do so.
3. Encourage young children to enjoy active play, via:
believing movement and activity is fun, alone or with family and friends
learning that being active helps them be stronger and smarter
building a lifelong habit of enjoyable daily activity
Our final key concept is for young children to enjoy being physically active. We may think of activity as exercise, but with children call it active play, because that’s what it is. Provide an environment and a routine that allow children to do what comes naturally – move and have fun.
We need to participate in play with them and teach age-appropriate movement skills, NOT age-inappropriate competitive sports. The goal is not to create superstar athletes. It is to foster each child’s natural desire to move their bodies and have fun!
We have most definitely become a sedentary society with the consequence of related health problems. However, we should not promote activity as if we’re personal trainers. Pressure to be active backfires, just like pressure to do anything. Do not promote activity to slim kids down or bulk them up; just promote activity to have fun.
How does it feel to move your body doing something you love to do, maybe dancing, or swimming, or horseback riding, or simply walking in your favorite park? Do you feel invigorated? Does it make you feel better about yourself and life in general? Help children feel that way about moving their bodies too.
Nutrition education is really nothing more complicated than providing children with opportunities to enjoy eating and moving – two of life’s greatest pleasures. We nurture growing children in very profound ways when we create environments that promote these behaviors, when we help them experience them, and when most of all, we DO them. I like to tell adults who care for children: BE the person you want your children to become!
We’ve talked about what we want to teach children; now let's look at how young children learn. . . I like to use the phrase "help children build bridges with concrete" to illustrate three principles of early childhood education. . .
Three overarching principles for teaching young children:
Let's look at what it means to "Help children build bridges with concrete."
1. Help Children = Self Learning
"Help children" stands for self-learning. In other words, don't teach children what they can discover for themselves. Let’s say we want to teach them where juice comes from. Instead of just telling them: "orange juice comes from oranges"… we could hold up a can of juice and ask them, "where does orange juice come from?"
Then we could probe with more questions until someone in the group says oranges -- then we could play a fun little game called “Pass the Orange,” sitting in a circle, pass an orange and say together: "Pass, pass, pass the orange, pass it very fast, pass, pass, pass, pass, let’s see who is last." The person holding the orange adds it to a pitcher. Hand them another orange to start again. Continue until the pitcher is full. Pick it up and try to pour juice into a glass, saying: “Hey, we have a pitcher full of oranges, but no juice pours out.”
Hold up an orange and ask, "How do we get juice out of an orange?" Follow their lead and together cut and squeeze the orange. Provide every child with a juicer and help them make juice.
What we're doing is helping the kids learn by taking advantage of their natural curiosity. Provide experiences, ask questions, and help children explore and figure out their world.
2. Build Bridges = Meaningful Learning
“Build bridges” stands for meaningful learning. That is -- connecting what they already know to what you want to teach them. Let's say you want to talk about recognizing the signals our bodies use to tell us when we need to eat and when we have eaten enough.
To use this principle for teaching children, consider that the kids likely know what it feels like to be hungry, but ask them to describe what it feels like. Prompt them to describe all the ways they feel hungry. Does their tummy growl? Do they get tired, or grumpy? Do they get a headache?
Help them realize this is their body telling them it needs food. Just like a car tells you if the gas tank is empty and needs filling with fuel to keep going, our bodies tell us when we need fuel. Our fuel is food.
When we start eating, does it make your body feel happy? When we’ve eaten as much as we want, how do we feel? Just right? How about if we eat even more? Have you ever felt stuffed or overfull?
Ideally, have this discussion before and during a snack or a meal so the learning is experienced. Following the next key principle.
Sometimes the challenge is figuring out what they already understand or can learn most easily so you can begin there and build on it.
3. With Concrete = Concrete, Active Learning
Kids don't learn abstractly; they need to be taught using concrete, active methods. Have them use a variety of their senses and their entire bodies, if possible, to understand a concept better.
What are examples of concrete activities? Acting things out, games, crafts, cooking, food tasting, and singing -- all of these and more! Our next post will share many examples.
To learn more about teaching nutrition to young children, check out these posts:
“The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child's own natural desire to learn.”
~ Maria Montessori
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