Teaching Kids Healthy Habits

Breakfast, snacks, and lunch are all looking a little brighter at Lee Health’s Child Development Centers.

“We’re introducing them to more whole foods, more plant based options, we use hormone free antibiotic free chicken, we use organic ground beef in our recipes, we use a lot of organics in our recipes,” said Lee Health’s nutrition system director Larry Altier.

He says the goal is to improve the community’s health, starting with children. “We wanted to do a little more to improve not only the health status of the products we offer and the programs we provide, but also help them develop some formative skills early.”

The new goal meant changing the menu to provide more fresh fruits and vegetables during breakfast, lunch, and snacks, while eliminating sugary drinks and desserts.

Lee Health’s child development system director JoAnne Fucieu says during meals teachers explain to the children how each food on their plate benefits their health. “For the most part they are willing to try the items. We developed lesson plans, so that they could work with the children on a weekly basis on the new items.”

Teaching children healthy eating habits at daycare will hopefully make healthy eating a home a little easier. “Start them out with a healthy lifestyle to develop good habits early on so that they can continue them in the course of their life and that’s what we hope to do with this program,” said Altier.


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Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries. Lee Health - Caring People. Inspiring Care.

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