Some advice for parents with picky eaters

Parental control at meals key





There are a lot of frustrated mothers pulling their hair out around dinner tables up and down the nation according to a new fussy eating kids survey.

The Anchor CalciYum Food Solutions research says 85 per cent of mums experience "fussy eating" behaviour and for three-quarters of them these daily food battles cause moderate to high levels of anxiety.

the survey polled 1000 mothers with children aged 3 to 11. Anxiety was attributed to a motherly desire to see their children receive sufficient nutrition.



Fiona Boyle, a Tauranga-based dietitian and nutritionist, agreed.



"Overall, it shows there are concerns that they feel their children are not eating a good enough variety of foods," Ms Boyle said.

Fussy eating profiles uncovered by the research included: Children not eating vegetables (58 per cent) and being picky about texture (49 per cent); to those who would only eat certain coloured foods (8 per cent) and some who displayed a strong preference for takeaway food (6 per cent).

Ms Boyle, founder of Food Solutions, said catching the problem early was important.

"Some parents come to me after four or five years and it is much harder to deal with once it's been established for that long," she said.



Children had differing rates of growth and appetite. The amount a child ate would often diminish in line with a growth spurt.



"That's not always expected by the parent, so they get worried," said Ms Boyle.

Strategies for combating fussy eating centred on being in control at meal times.



"If the child doesn't eat the meal offered don't turn around and give them their favourite vegemite sandwich. They will just learn that they can hang out and wait until mum gives in and gives me something else," Ms Boyle said.



"The parent's role is to choose what's on offer and it's up to the child whether they're going to eat it. What you don't want to see is an early establishment of 'Oh well Jimmy won't eat this so I won't bother putting it on his plate'. You have to keep on offering.

Wow, amazing long serving staff at Bayfield!

Out of interest I looked at upcoming anniversaries of all our Bayfield staff and thought I would share with you how long our lovely, dedicated staff have worked here.

Next year......

Shona        13 years
Joanna       12 years

Mona         11 years

Molly         11 years

Karen         11 years

Meher       11 years

Oriana        9 years

Rachel        8 years

Gu               8 years

Cindy          7 years

Cassandra  7 years

Usha            7 years

Melissa        6 years

Helen Z        4 years

Damayanthi   4 years

Marama       4 years

Earl               3 years

Helen H        3 years

Vanessa       3 years

Jean     3 years

Erin      3 years

Catherine  2 years

Iveta           2 years

A message from Lisa and Brett Archer - Re Hamper

Wonderful, awesome, overwhelming...thank you all so so much for the amazing thoughtfulness.  Mona and Erin delivered an incredible amount of goodies that the Bayfield parents and staff have given to our family.  We are...not sure what to say but we are truly grateful.  Thank you all so much. 
We are lucky to be in such a caring community and Katie has her great mornings at Preschool, which are special for her.  I am happy to talk to anyone about Katie's disease, or you can google it, Late Infantile Batten Disease.  It is cruel and unforgiving but we enjoying each day and making the most of Katie still being so well and happy.  The gifts that you all gave us help so much in our crappy journey so big heartfelt thanks - we were blown away.  
Lisa and Brett Archer  

ABACUS CALENDAR ORDERS

The abacus calendar order forms have now been placed in your pockets.  The children have been busy doing art work for the calendars and the art work can be viewed in their rooms.  If you would like to order a photo calendar you will need to do this through the abacus website. 
If paying by cheque, please ensure you make it out to Bayfield Early Education Centre.

Team Work

This week, we tried a small group investigation activity to enhance the children’s concept of shape. The children were divided into three groups and were given a set of blocks to work with. Each group had a leader who initiated the conversations and made decisions about the outcome. The children really found the task challenging and hard. The children needed lots of remainders to keep them on track during this task. It was hard for the children to really go ahead with this group activity. We all sat on the mat and then explored different aspects of this group task in terms of what went well and what was challenging for them.

Next time, when we did the same activity,  the children were more comfortable and really worked hard to finish this group task. This activity gave each child a wonderful opportunity to work with a large group of children with different strengths. It also reinforced his/her team spirit and social skills (Contribution).

Olympic ceremony in the four year old's room

The children were very fortunate to participate in the “Olympic Day” that happened in the morning. The children marched around with the Olympic flags, they made to the beat of the New Zealand National anthem. After that the children were put into three groups for playing high jump, running race and overthrow. They had awesome fun and demonstrated team spirit during these games. They were very proud when we recognised their efforts by presenting them with the medals in front of the whole class. This activity enhanced their self-esteem and they are confident to participate without any risk of failure (Well-Being).

Kids@Play Photography

During the period 20 - 25 September, we have Donna from Kids@Play Photography coming to photograph the children.  Donna has been coming to the centre for approximately 9 years now and she is very professional in what she does.  She takes very natural photos of the children at play throughout the day.  Once she has edited them, they will be available for purchase.  If you do not want your child photographed by Donna, please let us know prior to her coming.  More notices will be displayed around the centre soon.  If you have any queries at all about this, please see Shona or Mona at reception.

Daffodil Day

We are pleased to tell you that Bayfield (as a whole centre) raised $ 216.90 for the Cancer Society.  Thanks to everyone who made the effort on the day with all the yellow outfits and the generous donations for our coin trails and daffodils at reception.

Baking in the four year old room

One of the most wonderful things the children can learn from baking is how to experiment, just by taking our creative cooking licence and letting go.

There is nothing quite like throwing all sorts of ingredients together and seeing what happens. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - it's all about learning through discovery. This way we create our own way of doing things, even if it's not exactly how it should be (Exploration).

By far the best thing about baking is how it brings people together, to make and to eat. Eating together is an opportunity to discuss what we are doing in our lives, to share what we're interested in and have a good old laugh ( Belonging).

obstacle course

It turned out to be a great obstacle course when the four year olds were chose to help in settling up the playground. They have used steppers, cones, hoops, boxes, balls etc., to build their own obstacle course and trailed it out. It was an amazing moment for them to listen to each other and coming up with solutions.