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Physical and mental health for young children
Physical and mental health for young children

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4 Working together to make a difference

In the next video Karen gives some of her reflections about the healthy eating and drinking activities that were put in place using the 5 Steps in the pilot research.

Activity 4 Promoting children’s health: working together to make a difference

Timing: 10 minutes

As you watch the video, consider the key messages that Karen gives.

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Transcript: Video 2 promoting children’s health, working together to make a difference

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

DR. JACKIE MUSGRAVE
What would you do differently, if anything?
KAREN NEAL
It would be really interesting to get more feedback regularly from parents, I think, and also staff. And I think part of what we noticed was empowering the staff to feel like they were really making a difference when we did some staff training. We looked at the Prevention is Better Than Cure document, and that really, really supported them in realizing that they are noted in documentation and the importance of their role within nurseries is high.
It's a lot of the time you feel like day-to-day you get forgotten within early years settings. But the role that we all play is crucial, and if we don't embed these practices at such a young age, it has such a big impact later in life. So yeah, I think it's just checking in and trying to make staff feel more empowered with what their responsibilities are and the massive impact that they can make.
DR. JACKIE MUSGRAVE
Right. Finally, I'm going to ask you, what are your three tips for leading colleagues to develop a strategy to improve the health of children, please?
KAREN NEAL
I think the first one was knowledge. When we explained to the staff what it was that the parents-- parents' understanding of how the eating and healthy hydration was. And also looking at what their opinions of healthy eating and hydration was, it opened everybody's eyes to see that, Well actually, we could all make a change.
And it actually changed the staff's outlook on how they were managing their healthy eating and drinking within the nursery, and highlighted the fact that they needed to make more of a prominent role within the children day-to-day to make a change. So I think the first one was really just making sure the staff were really educated in what they were trying to promote, and role modeling that every single day to the children.
Secondly, information for parents. I think sometimes the shock tactic really works. They need to see the impact it can have, not just now but later in life. There's often myths saying, Well, oh, it doesn't matter if I give them a bottle of juice that's OK because. It's only their baby teeth, and later in life they'll have their big teeth.
And it's myths like that then where parents don't realize the damage they're actually doing with their child's oral health, but it's providing it in a way where parents don't feel like they're being told. They just need it highlighted to them so that they can see. And then simple little changes that can be put in place for them to realize that they can do that themselves, and we can support them through that as well. That's what we're there for as a nursery, to support them as parents.
And then the last one is, not all children are going to-- and parents, not all families, will find this an easy step to make. It takes everybody to work together and support one another to achieve the goal, and that's where we all need to come together and take responsibility as a collective to make a difference. So sometimes this includes working with outside agencies to find extra support for parents when needed, and being willing and open for the parents and for the students.
And that could mean to take a look as a bigger picture and seek support for these things that they're struggling with. We looked at asking a dental nurse to come in, and she was absolutely overjoyed to be invited in because she knows the need within the community that there was. And she was absolutely overwhelmed that we'd invited her in. And it was something that the parents were really happy because that was one area that they all agreed they didn't have enough knowledge in so.
DR. JACKIE MUSGRAVE
So you've really summarized the importance of a shared responsibility, making any intervention relevant, being a good role model, embedding these interventions wherever possible into normal everyday routine.
KAREN NEAL
Yeah. We kept coming back to it through the research where we were looking at the [INAUDIBLE] of the toolkit. So it needs to be realistic, it needs to be relevant to the area that you're working with. Each area that your nursery is based will be slightly different so you need to see what suits you, and what's realistic to your nursery and early years setting. And then how you can role model it within that setting.
DR. JACKIE MUSGRAVE
Yeah. That's such an interesting conversation that we've had. And thank you very much for your time.
End transcript: Video 2 promoting children’s health, working together to make a difference
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Discussion

Karen says that looking back, she would like to have included more feedback and input from the parents. This emphasises the importance of working with parents

Karen highlights the importance of the role that practitioners can play in making a difference to children’s health. However, they need to feel empowered to do so. She makes the point that in order to feel empowered in their role, they need to have the knowledge about health-related matters. Karen describes how doing a weaning course helped her to develop her knowledge which in turn helped her to increase her confidence.

By increasing knowledge, Karen explained how practitioners can provide information for parents. She describes part of her role as ‘myth busting’, for example, she can dispel the belief that oral health isn’t so important for babies and young children because they’re ‘only their baby teeth’. She describes how she was able to inform parents and children of the importance of oral health by inviting a dental nurse to come into the nursery.

Karen highlights that not all parents will find it easy to make changes that will promote and support their children’s health, but by working together, and sometimes including outside agencies, together a difference can be made.

In the next section, you will pick up on Karen’s comments in the video about the ‘Rs of health promotion.