As an early child care educator, you have a lot of responsibility on your plate, and that often includes filling your student's plates with healthy food. To assist with making these decisions, the following online child care training courses are available to help you understand what optimal nutrition is for children and how to teach them about healthy eating choices.

1.   Creating Healthy Lifestyles: Balancing Children's Diets with Good Food Choices

This two-hour course is worth 0.20 continuing education credits, and focuses on how to help your students make healthy dietary choices. However, to ensure that you're offering children the food they need to thrive, this course also covers the special nutritional needs of children ages two and older. Worried that your students might not like healthy options? Well, this course also shows you innovative ways to introduce healthy foods to young children.

Upon completion of this online child care training course, you should understand the importance of a healthy diet and know the effects an unhealthy diet can cause in a young child. The course will also cover the different caloric requirements for young children depending on their age, size, and other factors, as well as the basic vitamin and mineral needs of all young children. You will also learn how to interpret food labels and tips for sharing this information with the children in your care.

2.   Healthy Meal Planning

This nutrition related course is an hour long and allows you to earn 0.10 continuing education credits. The course is unique in that it covers information that can positively affect the health of your students for the rest of their lives. During this course, you will learn about essential nutrients, in addition to the USDA guidelines for healthy eating. As a final note, the course also covers the best way to create a meal plan for preschool-age children, in addition to sharing information related to infant nutritional needs.

3.   MyPlate: Helping Children Make Healthy Food Choices

MyPlate is a tool created by the USDA to help people of all ages make healthy eating choices. This hour-long course is worth 0.10 continuing education credits and helps you understand the MyPlate tool and how to use it in an educational setting. In particular, you learn about the benefits of an active lifestyle, the food groups as they relate to MyPlate, and how to share this information with your students. If you plan to work with preschoolers or other young children, this online child care training course will help you guide your children toward healthy eating habits.

4.   Keeping It Safe: Preventing Food-borne Illnesses in Child Care Settings

Of course, nutritious choices are just the beginning. It is also important to make sure you know how to handle foods safely. This course covers that information. "Keeping It Safe" is an hour-long, 0.10 continuing education credit online child care training course that provides you with information about causes of food contamination and best practices for food safety. You learn the causes and symptoms of food-borne illnesses, how to avoid contamination, and how to prevent illnesses.

Ready to take the leap and finally earn your CDA? Need to renew your existing credentials? With our online child care training courses, you can complete the credits you need at home on your own schedule. To learn more, contact us directly or create a training account to get started.