Article from Nutrition Australia
If we could choose the best “ingredients” to ensure our children have a healthy and resilient future what would they be?
In our ‘land of plenty’ there is not equal access to a healthy food supply, the same opportunities for physical activity, nor for healthy growth and development. Why is raising a healthy, resilient, functioning child in the world today, proving such a challenge? Where does the responsibility lie and what needs to be done to improve on this?
To explore these questions, Nutrition Australia Qld (NAQ) on the 5th October, 2010, in the lead up to National Nutrition Week (10-16 October) , hosted a discussion and advocacy forum in Brisbane, to begin a more connected conversation between people who can see the need for change in the way that this issue is being addressed. Speakers and participants were invited from diverse backgrounds and work arenas including health, nutrition, physical activity, social justice, urban planning education, family support, child development and the arts.
Two main questions were raised:
1) What are the barriers to healthy living for all? Can we identify and advocate for what could make a positive difference for the future?
2) In our society today, what is making it difficult for people to make ‘healthful’ lifestyle choices and choices that can provide for a healthy future?
The life context and its impact on developing resilience:
To make choices as an individual you need to be able to trust yourself and be resilient in the face of peer pressure, bombardment by advertising and media messages that seduce and challenge your beliefs. For the many Australians that live in adverse life circumstances (eg time poverty, work, family, and financial stress) there is an added overlay of challenges that can mean healthy lifestyle choices are not high on their list of priorities. Children are especially vulnerable to being confused by messages from advertisers and media as they are often presented with the idea that choosing less healthy food and beverages will give them more opportunity for fun, finding friends, and being popular with their peers – poignant issues in adolescence.
In adolescence as a child tries to develop who ‘they’ are, they will want to make some choices that differ from the parental point of view. Adolescents therefore, will be less receptive to the messages from their parents and other authority figures. In contrast, early childhood is a far more receptive time for children to receive messages from their parents and the wider environment. The beliefs and values provided by parents and others in early childhood will often be embedded for life. With all this in mind, it is not surprising that families and children are not always able or interested in taking up the health promotion messages from health professionals and educators.
Stopping the blame game and offering true support
It has become increasingly apparent that people are struggling to change lifestyle behaviours and in fact, this goal is not their main life priority. For those who develop and promote healthy lifestyle messages we need to respect this, and make our messages positive in nature and relevant to the context of peoples’ daily lives. The speakers and participants at the NAQ forum on October 5th 2010, took on the ultimate challenge to find a recipe or at least a few key ingredients that could help to improve the outlook for a healthy happy future for Australian children.
Key Messages from the Speakers at the Forum:
Dr Danielle Gallegos (QUT) - “Food–topia” - addressed 4 key issues: Availability of Food for all; Neophilia (love of the new); Commensality; and Size Acceptance.
The questions were asked ‘Who is to blame for the increase in child obesity and other health issues?’ Where should the finger be pointed: - fast food outlets; advertising and media messages; Parents not parenting or public health systems and health practitioners sending inappropriate messages?
There is little value in laying blame. We need to look at options for solutions to make it easy for people to make healthier lifestyle choices. Dr Gallegos suggested a Carrot vs Stick approach might be more effective to engage parents in making some lifestyle changes.
Dr Helen Stallman (University of Qld) - ‘Resilient Children in the 21st Century’ raised the question: ‘What does wellbeing look like?’
It includes personal attributes such as being able to recognise personal strengths and weaknesses; gratitude; responsibility; displaying optimism, empathy and hopefulness; the ability to cope with stress, to manage emotions and to learn from setbacks. Resilient children come from resilient adults.
Dr Stallman focussed on 4 areas where parents may benefit from some assistance:
Relationships – secure, clear & consistent expectations, safe environment, empathy, good interpersonal skills;
Opportunities – develop appropriate skills, solve problems, make decisions, make mistakes;
Modelling – use resources, make decisions, ensure balance, celebrate successes, engage in our communities
Values- identify personal and family values, making choices consistent with values, encourage children to take responsibility for their decisions.
Dr Geoff Woolcock (GriffithUniversity) - ‘Building and Sustaining Child-Friendly Communities’shed light on topics such as:
the rising fear instilled in children about the current state of the world
environments that are child friendly but risk averse
disappearing back yards
Nature Deficit Disorder and
the damaging impacts of environments that are high density with less open spaces
Dr Woolcock emphasized the importance and relevance of including children in the planning and development of their surroundings.
Dr Jenny Zivianni (UQ) - ‘Embedding Healthful Activity Engagement’ highlighted the importance of embedding appropriate time- use for healthy and resilient child development.
Children have a dependency on the structures and routines that are put in place by adults for the development of their values and perceptions about time-use. They have little choice about their physical environments, yet need to be able to participate in regular activities for their wellbeing. Children seem to be actively ‘participating’ less and losing a ‘sense of self’. Time-use issues include:
parents having less available time to spend with children
the media room is often now seen as the new back- yard
Dr Zivianni concluded there is a need for more community focussed activities to promote: healthy active participation for children and families; adequate rest; and structuring family routines.
While the speakers came from different perspectives common emergent themes were identified that could become a ‘call to action’. Key priorities in themes identified included:
Parents need to be enabled to encourage independence and resilience in their children. This might include encouraging age appropriate risk-taking and responsibility; allowing children some autonomy in making choices about – food, physical activity, and other actions and consequences.
The environment can be a facilitator for lifestyle change if it is planned so that it is easy for people to make healthy choices. Planning might include edible landscapes; safe shared community spaces (e.g. in higher density living areas); and consideration of the effect of higher density living on children.
Families face a number of dilemmas including: time poverty (Australians work more hours per week than most other nations); less routine; increasing pressures about what constitutes being a ‘good’ parent; financial stress; decreased time spent on activities of daily living (e.g. household chores) except for those associated with self-care (personal grooming); the power of advertising and media.
In addition to the built environment, we need to consider our culture of media (especially social media); societal pressures to “have”, to be a good parent, to belong; and the food supply.
KEY factors for building resilience include being able to: MAKE DECISIONS; TAKE AGE APPROPRIATE RISKS;BUILD RELATIONSHIPS.
The Key Question: “How can we help parents to role model resilience for their children?”
Parents need to be enabled to:
Allow children to take age appropriate risks
Carry out age appropriate household tasks
Encourage children to be part of decision-making around relevant issues
Allow teenagers to make more choices but also for them to accept the consequences of those choices
Talk and play with their children
Use healthy food choices and physical activity and play-based activity as means of expressing love and care
Feel positive about making small changes
There needs to be less pressure on parents to ‘get it right” – just encourage them to spend more time with their children.
Children are more likely to make healthy lifestyle choices if:
Parents role model those healthy choices
Food variety and healthy food is encouraged in the early years
Their parents have engaged with them in active play and they do active things together
They have been given age appropriate responsibility
They have developed some autonomy of food choice
They have been allowed to take age appropriate risks
They have the ability to build relationships
Healthy food choices are available
Daily activities and routines relating to food and physical activity can be opportunities to build children’s confidence, develop autonomy and build relationships with their family, carers and friends.
How can health professionals, educators and community development workers be effective in promoting health and well being?
Ensure their messages are relevant to the context of people’s daily lives and advocate for small successful changes that build on people’s strengths
Advocate for an environment that supports lifestyle change (e.g. edible landscapes; shared spaces for activity; green spaces for communities; safe spaces; adequate and reliable public transport; regulation of the number of fast food outlets)
Provide and advocate for opportunities that allow and enable people to try new healthy foods without worrying about wasting $$ in their food budget
Advocate for decreasing the cost of healthy food to rural and remote areas and for local and State govt authorities to ensure there is an adequate, drinkable water supply and refrigeration.
Limit or ban junk food advertising to children – including through sponsorship of sporting associations
Be creative and in touch with what people are able to achieve and their life priorities
Work across all sectors and ask the community what they would find helpful
Metaphorically, as for all recipes, we need to help people look at what they have ‘in their pantry’, see what we need to help them purchase or be provided with and be able to use alternative ingredients. For health, education, and urban planning professionals this means providing environments that allow people to respect and build on their strengths, in small ways, to impart greater resilience to parents and their children.
Aloysa Hourigan
Senior Nutritionist
Nutrition Australia Qld
Article from Nutrition Australia
