Promoting a Healthy Environment for Children Essay Example

Promoting a Healthy Environment for Children Essay Collate evidence which describes the role of the practitioner in working towards a health lifestyle and environment for children The role of a practitioner is vast. To be able to promote children a healthy life style and environment there are number of aspects that need to be met such as; * Routines * Circle time * Posters around the school (for example posters that promote healthy eating and exercise) * Environment * Indoor and outdoor activities Because children are growing it is important they have regular snack times as they need calories and nutrients for them to be healthy.Good nutrition is key to your childrens development and health, whether their toddler or a teenager. Providing children with healthy snacks can provide them with nutrition they need. Additionally, it is important for children to eat at least every four hours; having scheduled snack times can help them feel energized and fit. In my setting for nursery, children get to have a snack time during their break which would regularly be milk/water and a piece of fruit or vegetable.The fruit/vegetable would change everyday for example if one day they get apples the other day they would eat carrots which are healthy for the children. Other ways of promoting children to have healthy life style would be by having posters around the school in different languages so if a child cannot read English however can read polish they would also be able to read and understand the poster, these posters can be around the school for example, in front of the school you can have posters that promote healthy eating such as eat 5 fruits a day and keep fit or posters about doing regular exercise and eating vegetables.In my setting we promote healthy eating by doing circle times or reading books to the children for example when we have circle time we talk about why it is important to eat fruit and vegetable and what would happen if we eat unhealthy food. We also talk about the good things vegetables give us and how it a ffects our bodies. E2- Provide information about legislation which supports the rights of children to healthy lifestyle There is significant amount of legislation that links to the health and well-being of children and their families, legislations are important as they provide a framework for services to exist.One of these legislations are Every Child Matters and the Children Act 2004 Every Child Matters has been emended with Children Act 2004, Every Child Matters is a legislation in England that protects children and promotes their welfare and well being, this includes being healthy (growing and development as well as emotional and physical well-being), staying safe (indoors and outdoors), enjoy and achieve through learning (emotional well-being) for example if the child is experiencing problems at home such as parents being divorced an action and support would be taken and given and also achieve economic well being.Another legislation that supports healthy life style and environme nt for children is The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the child health is now seen as a right for all children in the world. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child sets out a list of rights that children should be entitled to.This legislation supports children and their rights of their life ‘States parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment and many more ’ (CACHE Level 3 Child Care and Education 4th edition Penny Tassoni 2007 Page 25) this shows that the legislation promotes healthy life style and environment by ensuring that all children are protected by the legislation and that they have a inherent right to life.E3- provide information about a range of factors which may affect children’s health and well-being at differing times in their lives Poverty is seen by many as a key fa ctor in children’s overall health and educational achievement. Poverty is classed in two different ways, the two main ways poverty is classed in is absolute poverty, which would mean having not enough money to pay for food, water and shelter, the second one is relative poverty this takes into account the standard of living of country’s population for example a person whose income is much lower might be classified as living poverty. Growing up in bad housing also has a long-term impact on children’s life chances because of the effect it has on a child’s learning and education’ Children that have bad housing Children living in poor or overcrowded conditions are more likely to have respiratory problems, to be at risk of infections, and have mental health problems which would affect the children psychological this is also critical to the children development. There are some factors that are short-term while other has the potential to affect children in the longer term. http://england. helter. org. uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/66429/Chance_of_a_Lifetime. pdf (04/11/12 18:33) Children also need balanced diets that meet their energy requirement. A poor diet can affect children in many ways such as; behaviour, mental development, intelligence etc there are also many other effects of a poor diet on children, which have a long-term affect, these can be; cardiovascular disease, cancer, tooth decay, low self-esteem and poor self-image, diabetes (Type II), musculoskeletal problems, high risk of weight problems in adulthood.It is important that everybody gets the correct amount of exercise in order to develop and remain healthy. When children do exercise they would expect it to be just fun and a physical activity for them, therefore it would be fun than something that is necessary to them and something that would benefit them in their future life. There are also health and developmental benefits of exercise such as, running, walking, pla ying etc these benefits are benefits such as stimulation of the brain, maintains and develops lung capacity, releases hormones’ (CACHE Level 3 Child Care and Education 4th edition Penny Tassoni 2007 page 261) and many more. However, some children are restricted from the activity, facilities and environment they have due to the fear of child abuse, traffic, health and safety and also computer, media and television. Children nowadays aren’t able to use the environment effectively the reason being is many parents do not feel comfortable letting children out of their sight due to murder which is stopping them from doing exercise.Children that have no access to the outdoor environment are influenced to engage with media sources at home as a result of their freedom limitation to play outside and socialise with friends. Due to traffic parents have also restricted their children from doing physical activities and playing outdoors which has resulted in less children doing outdo or activities and play alongside parents not letting their children play outside they are also not allowed to walk alone to school or return back. Some children are also driven to school which also limits their exercise.There are current initiatives that the government and local authorities have developed to encourage children to do more exercise freely and confidently ‘When we have streets we want to walk in, lives are transformed we are healthier, happier and more sociable’ http://www. livingstreets. org. uk/about-us (06/11/12 20:40PM) this is a campaign that supports and encourages parents and children to walk to school and also works and plans towards making the streets put people first which means being able to walk on street safely, which would encourage parents to allow their children to outdoor play and also to walk to school.E4- Include evidence of the effects of these factors on children’s health ‘The effects of long-term poverty on measures of c hildren’s cognitive ability were significantly greater than the effects of short-term poverty’ http://www. princeton. edu/futureofchildren/publications/docs/07_02_03. pdf (22/10/12 23:02PM) ‘Teaching your children to develop healthy habits is important to their health and development and can benefit them well into the future.Kids who follow a healthy diet and exercise regularly are more likely than kids who are sedentary to stay active as adults. Although more research needs to be done, at-risk children who are physically active on a regular basis reduce their risk of developing chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes’ http://www. livestrong. com/article/345254-why-is-it-important-for-children-to-exercise-regularly/#ixzz2BUFyEySg (20/10/12 18:18) http://www. ic. nhs. k/statistics-and-data-collections/health-and-lifestyles-related-surveys/health-survey-for-england/health-survey-for-england2010-trend-tables E5- Include examples of different routines for c hildren which will maintain a health life style Routine- Snack Time (1) 10-10. 30am| Prepare snacks – fruit or vegetable such as carrots, pears, apples or strawberries. Cut them peel the seeds and wash carefullyProvide the children with refreshing and healthy drinks – water or milk for the children that prefer it. | 10. 30-11. 0am| Gel children’s hands or wash them and supervise them while washing their hands. Make them sit down and start giving the snacks out | 11. 00-11. 15| Make sure all children have had their snacks; children that want milk drink milk and for the ones that want water provide them water with a cup. | 11. 15-11. 25am| Wipe the children’s mouth and hands with wipes | 11. 25am-11. 35am| Wash cups, put any left over fruit or vegetable in the household recycling bin| Routine- Physical Education (2) 9. 45-10. 00am| Get children to change their uniform into their P.E kit. Make sure all children have a t-shirt to change. Children without trai ners can do P. E bear foot if indoors if outdoors children can only join in with certain activities. | 10. 00am-10. 45am| Do a warm up activity such as running around in the playground or follow the leaders, and after the warm up activity teach or do 3-4 stretches before starting the main activity | 10. 45-11. 00am| Start getting the children inside and make sure they put their uniform back on, if any of the children want refreshments we give them water to drink. |E6- Include descriptions of TWO (2) activities which are suitable to use with children to promote a health lifestyle There are many ways of encouraging children to have a healthy life style. This can be done by providing them suitable activities that promote healthy lifestyle such as; making fruit salad with children. This can be done by doing a little cooking activity with the children, majority of the young children like colours therefore bringing the children colourful and healthy fruits such as strawberries, apples red /green, bananas, plums and oranges.This activity can be done with 48+months as they are still at the stage of developing and are exploring and experimenting different things. Throughout the activity hygiene is also promoted for example before the children touch the fruit they are told not to touch the fruit if they have not washed their hands which would encourage them to wash their hands before eating or touching food or it would spread bacteria and may also cause a disease. Doing a physical activity with children also promotes and encourages them to have a healthy life style.An activity that would encourage children to be healthy is an activity such as basket ball. And activity such as; splitting the players into two even groups, and have each team line up on the baseline. On command, the first player in each line dribbles to the opposite basket and shoots until someone scores. Once a player scores, he dribbles back to the original basket, where he shoots until he scores. He passe s to the second person in line and sits down. The first team with all its players sitting down wins.This activity would encourage children to be active and healthy as it would boost their pulse and help them warmed up which would keep them active. D1- Include an explanation of how routines and activities can promote and maintain a healthy lifestyle Routines are important for every child the reason being is this sets them a healthy and organized life style. Routine establishes so many aspects of  healthy  living, good habits and good behaviour that even the slightest structure is necessary in day-to-day life.Really, children need and even desire routine, even if they dont know it, and there are plenty of ways to get them going by building a schedule that works for them. Throughout a daily routine it is important you promote children a healthy lifestyle and environment, these can be done in a numerous ways. First of all, during a daily routine it is important you: * Promote hygien e * Promote a healthy environment * Teach children self help skills * Support them to develop their confidence/self esteem/independence * Encourage and support them to learn through funIt is important to promote children to be hygienic; Hand-washing is the single most important factor relating to the spread of infection. Children should be encouraged to wash their hands before eating, after using the toilet, after handling animals and if they are ill such as sneezing. When a child is ready to go to school or nursery, they are expected to be able to use the toilet themselves and wash their own hands; parents and carers must make sure this is happening or infections and diseases can spread.Mealtime routines support healthy lifestyles because the children are then encouraged to wash their hands before they have their snacks or meal. For example in my setting children are encouraged to wash their hands by, before sending them off to the bathroom we talk to the children about what can ha ppen if they don’t wash their hands and what they have touched throughout the day which can cause bacteria in their hands and how it can spread.