Parents are the most influencers in their children’s lives – especially in making choices of food and physical activities. To set up on the right path for life, Kidz kollege works closely with parents and specialists to help prioritise nutrition that empowers children to adopt a balanced and healthy relationship with food so that they can become the best version of themselves.
The annual health camp organised by the school from February 12th on 14th this year, the day that people around the world celebrated Valentine Day, with the theme ‘love yourself to live a healthy lifestyle’ helped to foster perfect nutrition as it was fully tailored to meet the challenges parents face.
Positive approaches to raise happy picky eaters were discussed in detail during the workshop.
Parents participated with great enthusiasm and were practically involved in choosing and packing a healthy snack box.
This was an interesting contest between two groups of parents as they had to choose foods from the ‘kidz kollege Mini Supermarket’ There was a wide variety laid out, both junk and healthy snacks and parents had to make a wise choice.
This three-day workshop facilitated by Nimtaz Walji, a dietician from the Aga Khan Hospital Dar es Salaam, was a fun and interactive session that engaged parents to practically make good choices in real life situations and use their creativity to pack their child’s healthy snack box in order to make it appealing.
Walji put emphasis on involving children in making the food choices prior to any preparations as this helps children become responsible to finish the food that they choose.
The workshop also shed light on nutrition recommendation for children, estimating serving sizes along with understanding hunger cues.
She added that it is very important to allow children to feed hungry rather than feeding them continuously and forcefully.
Parents should only display healthy foods in the house for the child to choose from. Giving them options of unhealthy items results into tantrums and poor eating habits added Walji.
Parents should only display healthy foods in the house for the child to choose from.
Walji was excited to see that children were taught and involved in the process of health care saying, “it brings in a sense of responsibility in them”.
Screening and consultation was conducted after the session whereby the height and weight chart determined the child’s growth and parents were advised accordingly. Parents had a great bonding time with their children, playing with manipulatives as they waited for their turn.
Parents walked out with healthy recipe handouts. Damodar Sangani of Kidz Kollege lauded the school and participants, saying that they were lucky to attend such kind of workshops as during his time, educational workshops were rarely conducted and there was no such awareness.
The creative snack box contest took Kidz Kollege by a storm too. As per the traditional Health Week that is apart from the participation of children, parents and guardians, it was also open to the public.
In an exclusive interview with Walji, who was accompanied by her colleagues; Kassim Moh’d Ali and sister Getruda Ikandilo, Walji could not resist sharing her heart feelings about the school’s idea.
“it’s my first time at Kidz Kollege, I think it is an excellent school, I have seen some very positive ways of teaching. I learned that the school is not trying to just leach, but actually develop children holisically which is very good,” she said
“I had a good time with teachers, they are extremely friendly and different to many and they seem to be following a development oriented system, which is a very big things. As a parent, I think the school encourages a lot of healthy teaching and habits because it brings people like us to be a part of the setup that mostly encourages children to practice in and outside their classrooms.”
“Overall, I think Kidz Kollege School is in the right direction, I think them for making me part of the camp and I wish them all the best.”
She added that there was a different experience in each of the three-day camp, and every set of parents had appreciated the ‘eye opening session.’ It was fantastic as both genders were involved especially in the contest.
From what she has learnt, every age group had different kind of challenge that parents face in feeding children.
“I saw in younger kids, there were mostly challenges of consistency in food, but for the older group, the bigger challenge was screen time because children want to eat while watching the television, iPads etc. hence these children often try to convince their parents to give them screen time for which parents sadly gives in.”
“So every set of parents needed different set of tips and guidance, though the general tips discussed with parents could be related to them, some have been practicing them while others are very keen to try them.”
She continues; “For example one of the mothers shared information on how she took away screen time in a very positive way and that was a very good eye opener to other parents.
Waji added that there are diet and nutritional specialists in the hospitals, parents rarely consult them. Children with nutrition problem can be given help by people like her.
She also advises parents to role models and teach their children by practice. They need to set an example to be followed by their children.
Walji noted that one needs to create the right kind of health environment that children can choose from and need to work on positively bringing about behavior change rather that trying to dictate or use negative words.
“On my point of view, I do not think negative words work with feeding. Children are very smart, they do not want to be told no! So, you really need to come out of it and find creative ways to implement healthy and happy eating habits,” she stressed.
You really need to come out of it and find creative ways to implement healthy and happy eating habits.
She noted that what you do now is going to be the repercussion for rest of their lies so if you raise healthy and happy eater from now, the child will grow with this habit forever.
She added that children have less concentration span, so you need to find creative ways to hold their attention.
“I have been telling parents that they need to sit down with the children and have a meal with them so children can have conversations with you rather than watching television or running around with toys or playing games during the meal. The best thing is to hold their attention and allow them to sir in one place to eat their meals.”
Keep consistency; don’t give up in implementing healthy eating habits.
The staff and the school Directors; Sheila Badiani and Bindu D. Sangani were happy that the camp was fruitful, saying that they have already received good reviews from parents who have tried the new techniques.
“We would like to thank Walji and her team; it was a pleasure to have them with us.”
This article was originally published in the Weekend Leisure pullout newspaper.
Thanks for reading! Nimtaz values healthier lifestyles and believes that we can achieve meaningful development by eating effectively.
Photo by Edgar Castrejon on Unsplash