Dr. Isha Gupta
Schools and families commonly provide traditional ‘party’ options such as cakes, lollies, pastry foods and soft drinks to celebrate student birthdays and special events. However, these options don’t support healthy eating messages, as they are most often low in nutritional value and high in energy, saturated fat, sugar and/or salt. Try these ideas to help make classroom birthday parties and other school celebrations enjoyable for children, while reinforcing the healthy eating messages and practices being taught in the classroom.
Food ideas
The traditional candy partying in classrooms on the occasion of birthdays can lead to dental caries, the most commonly occurring dental disease in both children and adults.This can be replaced by health eating ideas for everyone which are non-sticky and thus less cariogenic. Following are some of the ideas:
Use of Savoury
* Popcorn (minimal fat, salt and/or sugar added)
* Wholegrain or wholemeal crackers
* Platter of salad-based sandwich triangles or wraps
* Baked potatoes with toppings (e.g. coleslaw, plain yoghurt, baked beans and reduced fat cheese)
* Corn on the cob
* Vegetable or meat BBQ kebabs
Sweet Alternatives
These options can be offered as a healthier alternative to birthday cakes and lolly bags:
* Sliced fruit platter (serve alone or with reduced fat yoghurt)
* Fruit kebabs (fresh or frozen), fruit salad, fruit platters, canned fruit (in natural juice)
* Watermelon slices
* Dried fruit without added sugars or coatings snack mixes (muesli, dried fruits, nuts or popcorn). Check your school’s allergy/anaphylaxis policy regarding the provision of nuts and products containing nuts.
Drinks
* 100% fruit juice without added sugar (serve size 250ml or less).
* Get the students involved in making fresh juices.
* Reduced fat plain or flavoured milk (serve size 300ml or less).
* Fruit smoothies (made with frozen fruit, reduced fat yoghurt and milk). Serving size of 300ml or less.
*100% fruit juice slushes with no added sugar. Serving size of 200ml or less.
Non-food ideas
Dress up
4Birthday student can wear a special sash, crown, cape, or carries a special item for the day.
4Invite all students to celebrate the special day by wearing a selected colour or special item (e.g. badge, funny hat, a red coloured piece of clothing, etc.).
Dance
4Have a classroom dance party or ‘dance-off’ competition. Let the birthday student choose their favourite song to play from a list of classroom favourites (approved by teacher first).
Watch
4Birthday student chooses favourite online video clip for class to watch (teacher to approve first).
“Wishing you a Happy Birthday with a Teethy Smile”.
(The writer is Postgraduate Scholar guided by Prof. Dr. Bhavna Kaul HOD Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry Indira Gandhi Govt. Dental College , Jammu).
