A big issue in child rearing revolves around food. Good-for-you food. Healthy food. Nutritious food sans the “ugh” factor. And therein lies the rub ... or does it?

Not necessarily.

At the Nation’s Early Learning Center (ELC), children are introduced to a plethora of healthy edibles spanning the food pyramid, and they are eating them. ELC is ahead of the curve in this endeavor as learning institutions across the country are aiming to improve the meals they serve.

“We’ve always focused on offering the children nutritious foods, but have escalated the goal since implementing the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-assessment for Child Care (NAP SACC) program in 2007, an early intervention plan for childcare centers to prevent childhood obesity,” said Tricia Narolis, ELC manager. “Part of the recommendation is for schools to increase the fruits and vegetables offered, and that’s what we’ve been doing. Plus, from the infants up, we introduce age-appropriate activity.”

To reinforce the ELC’s healthy-eating objectives, parents have been brought on board, especially for birthday and other celebrations where the children bring goodies from home. Keeping to its guidelines of limiting snacks high in fat and sugar and replacing them with healthy alternatives, ELC provides a list of suggested substitutes for special occasions. Angel food cake with fruit, vegetables and fruit with dip, pudding pops or popsicles are among the options. And parents are getting creative. For the Halloween party, stickers replaced food items brought from home altogether.

Day to day, ELC staff encourage healthy eating by offering a diverse selection of new foods for the children to try in innovative ways. Take the pre-K class, for example.

Over the course of a year, the kids partook of an alphabet soup of edibles, aptly titled “Eat the Alphabet.” Healthy foods representing one letter at a time were presented to the group, but the premise of the program went further than food.

“We also incorporated different cultures and countries into the program,” said Tricia. “For the letter H, the kids made Hungarian goulash in class, and we talked about Hungary.”

The older kids go on field trips to the grocery store and farmer’s market to buy fruits and vegetables. Each child is given a set amount of money and told to choose an item they had not eaten before to bring home to try.

While healthy eating is stressed, an eating component alone cannot ensure fitness. Thus, ELC strives for a balance between healthy foods and physical activity to counter the national obesity trend that is affecting children.

“There is an increasing trend toward overweight and obesity in kids beginning as young as 2 years old,” said Tricia. “Recess, or what we call large motor time, is part of the day’s regimen for all classes.”

Of course, unstructured or free playtime is also part of the children’s day. During the structured period, activities range from moderate to vigorous exercise with a big dose of fun thrown in. An obstacle course that reinforces color recognition and cooperation subtly teaches while employing exercise as its unknown (to the kids) goal.

“It appears as simply play, but we are incorporating academics with healthy lifestyle choices,” said Tricia. “We try to come up with fun projects to get the kids excited about living healthy, eating healthy and being active. It’s ongoing.”

And parents are cued in to the various projects to reinforce the programs at home. Pedometers were given to the kids with a reward earned after reaching a certain amount of steps. The beauty was that the kids continued to earn steps at home. Thus, the whole family became involved.

Reinforcement is the key, said Tricia. The staff is planning to give parents directions for games the kids play that encourage good eating and exercise in the hope the behavior can continue at home. An active play curriculum is being piloted for toddlers, pre-school and pre-K children and thus far the feedback has been positive. Parent handouts will follow.

“We stress a healthy lifestyle, but the ELC children don’t fit in with the standards set by the state and federal government for obesity,” said Tricia. “We don’t see an obesity problem in our program. But the healthy lifestyle habits of nutritious eating and exercise are important for everyone.”