Healthy Lunch & Oral Hygiene Guide

 Our school is a nuts & eggs free zone

Herer are some recommendation for lunch box ideas: 

Best Ever Lunch Box   Simple Lunch Box  Little Helpers Cook Book

Sandwiches: Try different types of bread (granary, wholemeal, high fibre white bread, rolls, French bread, bagels, pita bread).   Have different fillings and try to include a fruit or vegetable (chicken, low-fat mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato, and cress, grated cheese (try different types) and carrot, tuna and sweet corn, cheese and cucumber, mashed banana.  Fruits and vegetables: Seedless grapes, small bananas, cherries, dried fruit such as apricots, dates or raisins, fruit salad, canned fruit kept in their own juices, cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, pepper sticks, baby sweet corn, grated carrot and raisin salad.  

Drinks:

Water

Other lunch box snacks:

Scones, malt loaf, flapjack, low-fat yogurts, tea cakes, plain popcorn, fruit buns, rice cakes, bread sticks, cheese and crackers, quiche, low-fat coleslaw, pretzels, cereal bars, semi-sweet biscuits.

Most importantly

-    Enjoy your food

-    Eat a variety of different foods

-    Eat the right amount to be a healthy weight

-    Eat plenty of foods rich in starch and fiber

-    Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables

-    Don’t eat too many foods that contain a lot of fat

-    Don’t have sugary foods and drinks too often

By making the children aware at school and at home, we feel they will be able to make their own choices about

how to eat healthily. Your role in guiding and supporting them with this is vital.

How parents and carers can help ?

If your child takes a packed lunch to school, put in a piece of fruit or vegetable, such as a carrot, or some dried fruit or 100 per cent pure fruit juice. Note that dried fruits and fruit juices should only be consumed at mealtimes to reduce the risk of tooth decay.

Encourage your child to use other opportunities to eat fruit and vegetables at school too, for example, encourage your child to eat a piece of fruit at break time. Ask your child about the fruit and vegetables they have eaten at school. Explain that eating fruit and vegetables will help them grow and stay healthy.

Encourage your child to eat fruit and vegetables at home as well as at school.

Personal taste, preference, table manners, personal hygiene, and self care skills 

A talk about what colour of lunch box your child she would like to have, and what sandwich fillings and fruit your child would like to pack in their lunch will give them a sense of choice and decision making. Similarly, it is also important to start to talk about what are good table manners when eating, good personal hygiene,  for washing hands, self help for opening your own lunch box and packing lunch. These are important skills that are required during lunch time to become independent at lunch time. 

Promoting Oral Health

Visiting the dentist.

Plan a trip for a small group of children to visit a local dentist. They can have a go in the chair, get used to the smells and sights and interact with the dentist.

Contact your local dentists. One may be able to visit the early years setting and give a quick talk/demonstration for the children.

Where to find a Dentist ? 

You can follow the link to find a dentist near you via - https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist

Books, stories and songs to share 

You can find these books at -  HOP Chidlren Bookstore

1. Crocodile Smile

2. Brush, Brush, Brush

3. Why Should I Brush My Teeth

4.   A Song of ‘ Brush Your Teeth’ to help your children to brush their teeth properly.  

Some Useful weblinks to support healthy oral hygiene in EarlyYears:

•        Health matters: child dental health guidance from Public Health England – summarises risks factors and recent research, including evidence of effective interventions for improving dental health

•        Oral Health Foundations Dental Buddy resources: The Dental Buddy programme hosts a series of educational resources for Early Years' Education Key Stage One and Key State Two. It includes activity sheets, lesson plans and interactive presentations.

PACEY's nutrition spotlight: Nutrition, encouraging healthy eating habits, and learning about food is important, particularly in the early years.

•        A quick guide to a healthy mouth in children: factsheet for parents and carers (Public Health England)

•        Guidance for early years settings: regarding toothbrushing (including usage and storage of toothbrushes)

•        A resource to support commissioners and providers of supervised tooth brushing programmes in schools and early years settings in England: A PHE toolkit to support supervised tooth brushing programmes in early years and school settings.

•        A tooth brushing feasibility report 'Smiles 4Children' which shows the deliverability, acceptability and cost of an early years supervised tooth brushing scheme.

•        Information about how to monitor the amount of sugar in children’s diets: plus how to download the Sugar App to see at a glance how much sugar is in food and drink.

•        Oral Health Promotion in the early years (specific to Warwickshire): free online course that takes around 35 minutes to complete. 

•        Children’s Oral Health e-learning: NHS e-learning for Health, the Royal College of Surgeons of England and University College London, have produced a free, easy access module giving children’s oral health care advice for all. For more information about the e-learning programme and for details of how to access it visit go to their website.

•        Dental Helpline: If you need any help of advice, the Oral Health Foundation has a team of fully trained experts who can help.

•        Early years oral health blog from Public Health England's Jenny Godson