This recipe is perfect for Christmas time and can be enjoyed by those young and old. With only 4 ingredients, it’s simple and easy to prepare.
Strawberry and Oat Balls – makes 24
Ingredients
Method
Involving the Children
Kids love this recipe! They can help with the preparation of the strawberries, measuring out of the ingredients and best of all rolling the mixture into their own balls.
The guide to the NEW National Quality Framework states:
“Assessors may observe educators responding to babies’ verbal and non-verbal cues about their preferred food preferences and meal times.”
To meet the assessment criteria, it’s important that all staff involved in feeding babies at meal times are responding to the cues they receive from infants.
While babies may not be able to tell us how they feel, they certainly have their own ways of showing whether they like or dislike something. A baby’s facial expressions and body language can tell you a lot about how much they like a new food. These verbal and non verbal cues are particularly important to observe and respond to when feeding infants at mealtimes.
Signs a baby is enjoying a food:
Signs a baby is not interested in the food being offered:
How to respond to their cues:
The guide to the NEW National Quality Framework states Assessors may observe educators sitting with children and modelling, implementing and reinforcing healthy eating and nutrition practices with children during mealtimes.
Mealtimes are a great opportunity to promote children’s learning and reinforce healthy eating practices. To meet the assessment criteria, it’s important that all staff involved in meal times are actively modelling and reinforcing healthy eating practises during mealtimes.
Educators can help provide a healthy eating environment by:
How you can support staff to meet these criteria?
Finally, make sure you document experiences ready for Assessment and Rating!
There are a number of food safety hazards to consider with eggs and there are some strategies you can use to minimise risk and keep food safe:
– The outside of egg is easily contaminated with micro-organisms that can cause food poisoning.
– If shell is cracked or membrane broken, bacteria can easily enter the egg and grow inside.
– An egg shell is porous so even if the shell is not cracked, bacteria can soak through into the egg. This risk is increased when there is condensation on the egg. This may occur with a change in the temperature of the egg after being removed from the fridge.
– You should never wash an egg as this makes the shell more porous, increasing the risk of contamination
Egg safety management strategies:
– Discard any cracked eggs
– Avoid washing eggs
– Use an egg separator when separating eggs instead of using the shell
– Minimise risk of cross-contamination between when eggs have been handled and other food is being prepared or served. Handwashing after handling eggs, and following safe cleaning and sanitising procedures are essential to keeping food safe.
For queries regarding using eggs in your early years setting, please contact Safe Food Production Qld http://www.safefood.qld.gov.au/
For information on using eggs from a non- approved producer please visit: http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/livestock/poultry-and-eggs/poultry-legislation-regulations-and-standards/food-safety-for-egg-producers/producing-safe-eggs-at-home
There is a wide variety of fruit available in Australia. The main distinguishing nutrients in fruit are vitamin c and dietary fibre, with smaller amounts of carbohydrates, folate, beta-carotene and potassium. Edible skins are especially high in fibre; however fibre is also high in the flesh as well.
Including fruit in the diet each day may help to reduce the risk of some chronic diseases, including heart disease and some cancers. All fresh, frozen, and canned fruits fall within this group, however canned varieties should be in fruit juice as opposed to syrup. Fruit juices also belong in this group; however they usually lose some of the fibre found in fresh fruit (fruit juice is not recommended in early years settings). The high acidity in fruit juice can lead to dental erosion if consumed frequently. Dried fruit can also be used; however it has a lower water content and is also more energy dense. It is encouraged to eat dried fruit with other foods to increase saliva production in the mouth to reduce the effect of the ‘stickiness’ of dried fruit on the teeth.
How much fruit is needed?
| Age | Fruit Serves Required | |
| Infants | 7 – 12 months |
½ serve per day (where 1 serve = 20g) |
| Toddlers | 1 – 2 |
½ serve per day (where 1 serve = 150g) |
| Boys | 2-3 | 1 |
| 4 – 8 | 1 ½ | |
| Girls | 2-3 | 1 |
| 4 – 8 | 1 ½ |
A serve of fruit equals:
– Approximately 150g
As seen in the above table, young children should only be consuming approximately 1 serve of fruit per day. If they are to receive approximately 50% of their daily intake whilst in care, this equates to ½ – ¾ of a serve. One way to ensure children don’t consume excessive amounts of fruit is to have a wide variety of other foods available, such as breads/sandwiches, wholegrain crackers, and mixed vegetables with low fat dips.
Interestingly, the recommended serves of fruit has decreased and the recommended serves of vegetables has increased since the last Australian Dietary Guidelines were released. If you would like to comment on the fruit serves for children, let us know at foodfoundations@naqld.org For more information, phone 07 3257 4393.
Healthy Eating for 1 – 5 years
By providing your child with the recommended amounts from the Five Food Groups and limiting the food’s that are high in saturated fat, added sugars, and added salt; they will get enough of the nutrients essential for good health, growth and development.
Grain (cereal) foods, mostly wholegrain
One Serve = 1 slice bread, ½ cup cooked rice/pasta/noodles, ¼ cup muesli, 3 crispbreads
Children under five years of age require 4 serves per day
Fruit
One Serve = 1 piece of medium sized fruit e.g. apple, orange, banana; 2 pieces smaller fruit e.g. plums, kiwi; 30g dried fruit or 125ml fruit juice (no added sugar)
Children under five years of age require ½ to 1-½ serves per day
Vegetables
One Serve = ½ cup cooked green or orange vegetables, ½ cup cooked dried or canned beans, 1 cup green leafy or raw salad vegetables
Children under five years of age require 2 ½ to 4 ½ serves per day
Lean meat and poultry, fish, eggs, nuts and seeds, and legumes/beans
One Serve = 65 cooked lean red meats such as beef, lamb, veal, pork, goat or kangaroo, 80g cooked lean poultry such as chicken, 100g cooked fish fillet, 2 large eggs, 1 cup cooked or canned legumes/beans, 170g tofu
Children under five years of age require 1 – 1 ½ serves per day
Milk, yoghurt, cheese and alternatives
One Serve = 250ml glass of milk or soymilk; 2 slices of cheese (40g); 200g of yoghurt
Children under five years of age require 1 – 2 serves per day
Healthy Eating for 7 – 12 months Olds
It is recommended that infants should be exclusively breastfed until around 6 months of age. If this is not possible, then infant formula should be used.
For all infants, recommended nutrient intakes are based on the nutrient profile of breast milk for infants up to 6 months and on estimates of the nutrients provided by breast milk or formula and complementary foods for infants 7-12 months of age.
Introduce first foods around 6 months, starting with iron-fortified infant cereal and/or iron rich foods such as pureed meat, followed by other foods from the Five Food groups.
A sample daily food pattern for infants aged 7-12 months is shown in the table below. This is a guide only as individual needs may vary. As you would expect, infants progressively increase the volume and variety of foods they eat during 7 – 12 months of age. Appropriate growth and development will help indicate whether food intake is at a suitable overall level for each individual infant.
Some serve sizes have been adjusted to account for the small amounts that may be consumed by infants at any one time, while common foods for this age group such as infant cereal have been included. Regular growth checks by a child health professional are encouraged.
| Food | Serve Size | Serves a Day | Serves a Week |
| Vegetables/beans/legumes | 20g | 1 ½ | 10-14 |
| Fruit | 20g | ½ | 3-4 |
| Grain (cereal) foods | 40g bread equivalent | 1 ½ | 10 |
| Infant cereal (dried) | 20g | 1 | 7 |
| Lean meats | 30g | 1 | 7 |
| Breast milk/formula | 600ml | 1 | 7 |
| Yoghurt/cheese | 20ml yoghurt/ 10g cheese | ½ | 3-4 |
The information in this article is used by permission of the National Health and Medical Research Council.
For more information, please visit www.eatforhealth.gov.au or email foodfoundations@naqld.org or phone (07) 3257 4393
