Page 199 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

Preschool children explore visual and physical concepts of food.
Source: CDC.

Another characteristic of preschool children is their reliance on the physical and visual concept of the food.
Familiarity with a food is a strong concept. Young children often will not try new foods unless provided in an
innovative and positive environment. Also, children of this age have been shown to judge satiation and
satisfaction by the familiarity of the foods served. Thus, they may continue to look for more food and large
portions if they feel they did not “eat” food, but rather an unfamiliar alternative.16 Exposures to televised food
commercials could influence preschool children’s food preferences, leading them to pressure parents to buy
particular food items at the grocery store.15,17

Counseling Strategies

Nutrition professionals are often faced with challenges when counseling preschool-age children. One
challenge is to assess the food pattern of the child. This involves collecting accurate information from the
caregiver, who may not be present at all the meals consumed by the child. Food records directed at this life
span age group have been adapted with reasonable accuracy for children 9 to 36 months of age.13 Another
issue they may face is the changing diet pattern of the child. Young children tend to change their behaviors
rather quickly; for example, a child who is a good eater as an infant may be a fair to poor eater as a toddler.
Children may also neglect to eat a particular food for weeks to months without any explanation. A child who
is entering a phase of growth spurt may increase intake and variety for a short time, only to revert to a
different food pattern the next month.13

In addressing these challenges, nutrition professionals should provide the child and caregivers with
suggested food patterns that offer a variety of food choices. Food patterns can be found from various
professional sources. The ChooseMyPlate education initiative from the United States Department of
Agriculture offers specific resources for children. Nutrition counselors should also recommend that the child
should be exposed to a wide variety of foods rather than offering the same type of food repeatedly. Emphasis
should focus on nutrient density and appropriate portion size. For example, the counselor could advise
caregivers of preschool-age children to control the quantity of juice drink boxes consumed daily by alternating
beverage consumption among 100% juice, water, and milk.

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