Healthy Eating Children's Rhymes

The core principle of healthy eating children's songs suitable for sung by children aged 3-8 is "adaptive to young age cognition, easy to remember, and no wrong guidance." Currently, mainstream creations in China are divided into two categories: science-oriented and fun-oriented. There is no absolute optimal template. The core function is to use a low-burden singing method to help children establish a preliminary understanding of healthy eating, and the effect is far better than blunt preaching.

When I worked as a dietary science volunteer in a public kindergarten two years ago, I adjusted three versions of children's songs with the middle class teachers and encountered many real pitfalls. At the beginning, we were digging into the details of the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)" for young children, and the written version was in line with the standards, saying "cereals and potatoes dominate, followed closely by fruits and vegetables." However, during the rehearsal of the small class, the children misunderstood "cereals and potatoes" as "sweet potato flavor", and in the second half of the section, they collectively went off and sang "sweet potato flavor dominates", which made a big joke.

Nowadays, those who make healthy eating nursery rhymes are naturally divided into two groups, and no one can convince the other. One group is a practitioner in the field of public health and believes that accuracy is the first priority. Every number and every type of food in the nursery rhyme must comply with the guidelines, and there must be no mistakes or omissions. I have seen the official version issued by a provincial center for disease control before, which clearly mentions "daily milk volume of 300 milliliters, and salt intake of no more than two grams." The other group is early childhood education institutions and parent-child bloggers. They focus on a song that is easy to remember and sing. They will add a lot of onomatopoeia and life-like descriptions, such as "little tomatoes, red, toot, bite, sour." Children learn very quickly. Last time I found a millionaire blogger. In the version published, my niece is three years old and can hum after listening to it twice. But if you look carefully at the content, it only talks about the delicious fruits and vegetables. It does not mention the combination of staple food and the avoidance of high-sugar and high-oil content. Many parents have reported that their children can sing very well and should they be picky eaters.

Later, we held a food festival in the garden and had a program, so we simply took the strengths of both groups and made a compromise version. Instead of forcing numbers, we just focused on a few habits that are easiest for children to change: "Small rice bowl, hold it steady, one bite of rice, one bite of vegetables, green leaves, I like to eat, after drinking milk, I am not picky about food, fried chicken legs, less touching, round belly will not make me sick", in total There are only 7 sentences. During the rehearsal, the children added their own movements, holding the bowl, biting the vegetables, waving their hands to refuse the fried chicken legs. Less than half a month after the performance, many parents came to us with feedback, saying that their children started humming when eating at home. Spinach that they had never touched before would now take the initiative to pick up a chopstick and say, "Green leaves, I like to eat."

In fact, there is really no need to worry about which version is "right". If your child is only over two years old and is still in the stage of recognizing ingredients, choose the fun-oriented version first to make him not resist eating. Don't forcefully introduce knowledge points at the beginning, which will cause resentment. If the child has already entered the middle class and can understand the rules, slowly add science content to him. My best friend's child is five years old and usually sings a version with ingredients differentiated. The last time I went to the supermarket to buy vegetables, I could tell the difference between lettuce and lettuce by pointing at the shelf. I said that the children's song sung "lettuce has long leaves, and lettuce leaves are round", which made the salesperson laugh.

I have seen many parents choose children's songs for their children, and they always want to find something that is "complete". It is best to tell them all about eating staple food, eating vegetables, drinking milk, and drinking less drinks in one song. In fact, it is not necessary at all. There are only a dozen sentences in total, and children will not be able to remember too much information. It is better to find short stories that correspond to the children's problems. For example, children who like to drink carbonated drinks should find a nursery rhyme that specifically talks about drinking less sweet water: "Sweet Coke, bubbles, if you drink too much, you will get holes in your teeth, boiled water is the best, take a sip, it will be cold." It is just four sentences. Several children around me have learned it, and when they see Coke, they will chant "Caves in their teeth" to themselves, which is more effective than their parents repeating it a hundred times after them.

To put it bluntly, healthy eating nursery rhymes are a "little tool" to help children develop habits. Don't worry too much about whether they are rigorous and interesting enough. As long as there are no misguided guidance, the children are willing to sing, and can remember one or two useful little knowledge points, they have reached the standard. After all, eating habits are developed slowly and slowly, and singing two songs can change them immediately.