International Montessori Council / IMC Members Resource Library: Infant-Toddler Education

The Making of Great Little People – A Diet For Little Learners

The Making of Great Little People – A Diet For Little Learners

 Food balancing, fats, and focusing

 

by Jan-Katzen-Luchenta 

 

 

The wonderful thing I love about teaching one and two-year-olds is they wear their hearts on their sleeves. Their immeasurable emotional honesty is heartwarming to watch. If they fall down or get their feelings hurt, they cry instantaneously.  When they run and play their faces light up with joy, and if they take something from a friend or push someone down, when asked, they�ll reflexibly admit it.

Very early learners also wear what they have eaten or not eaten into their classroom or life�s experience.

I have stumbled into this awareness after many years of observing uncharacteristic behavioral changes in some children from one day, sometimes one minute to the next!

Why did Wyatt who normally is well mannered at the lunch table suddenly become a loud, kick your neighbor kind of a child? And how could good natured, Maxie transform into a grumpy, aggressive bully twenty minutes after arriving to school?

The coup de grace unfolded one day when exceptionally focused, even-tempered Ellen came to school portraying an easily distractible, hysterical child who couldn�t follow the simplest of directions. I began to ask myself, �Are little children just naturally moody and unreasonable?  �Is their educability just a crapshoot dependent on the barometric pressure or the day of the week? Thoroughly confused and exhausted I decided to do a little investigating. Through lunchbox analysis, persistent cross examinations of parents, and consults with local nutritional gurus it became evident that diet could be playing a significant role in this inexplicable emotional drama playing out before my tired eyes and body.  My grandmother was right. As trite as it seemed at the time, �we truly are what we eat.� But just to make sure I decided to peruse the books and periodicals in the library and do a search on the Internet and read everything I could about early childhood education and nutrition as it applies to the very early learners mood, behavior, and ability to focus. This was no easy task as there are 123,334 websites and experts and scientists in the field of human nutrition, brain development, visual acuity and every shade of learning style and difference in between are written up in 80 % of them.

 Though intimidated at times by the blood brain barrier and reduced neuronal phospholipid turnover when I came upon the phrase carbohydrate addiction and brain fog, I knew I had found the Holy Grail!

Food balancing

Let�s begin with Ellen Satter, an authority on feeding infants and children. In her book, Child of Mine, Feeding with Love and Good Sense she talks about food balancing and the staying power from eating when the meal or snack is high in sugar, starch, protein, fat, and all four. She provides the reader with a series of charts that illustrate how quickly a child feels satisfied after eating certain foods and using a time line, when they will be hungry again. She also points out that there are also physical and emotional variables that can make the charts subjective.

The first graph shows satisfaction from consuming a sugar only meal or snack. The satisfaction response is quite fast because sugar enters into the bloodstream very quickly with little if any digestion required. It causes an increase in blood glucose. Looking at the graph you see the instant surge of satisfaction drop down just as quickly as it shot up. The child who has eaten a sugar only snack or meal will soon be hungry and may even become unmanageable as a result of it. AHA! That explains Wyatt at lunchtime. His lunch consisted of sugar-laden entrees such as sweetened yogurt, a banana, and a juice box. Within minutes his little legs starting to kick softly under the table. Then his voice started to escalate. Next thing I knew, he was reaching for his neighbors raisins. Next, the soft kicking became foot thrashing under the table. This is called a high glycemic response. Blood sugar levels escalate giving the child a surge of energy. In this altered state, Wyatt was sipping on his juice box straw and by the end of �happy hour� couldn�t focus long enough to pack up his lunchbox. As I continued my research into daily requirements of sugar for small children I learned that simple sugars should constitute 10 % of the child�s total daily caloric intake.  Based on a 900 calorie a day meal plan, Wyatt was enjoying his recommended weekly sugar allotment!

The next graph shows the satisfaction from consuming a sugar and starch meal or snack. The satisfaction response is slightly slower than sugar only because the starch has to be digested before it can be absorbed into the bloodstream. However the staying power is limited (around twice that of sugar) and the child will soon be hungry. And if this is an active child (what child isn�t?) it will even be shorter!

That explains why Maxie knocked his friend down on the playground twenty minutes after coming to school. His graham cracker breakfast didn�t have the staying power he needed to get him through to snack time. He became cranky and ill tempered because of his nutritional letdown. He was hungry!
 
The third graph shows the satisfaction from consuming sugar, starch, and a protein. In adding protein to a snack or meal it makes it last longer. It takes awhile for the protein to be satisfying because it has to be broken down into amino acids before it can be absorbed into the bloodstream. It has about three times the staying power of a sugar only meal or snack.

The last graph illustrates the satisfaction from consuming sugar, starch and protein and fat. The presence of fat in a snack or a meal slows down the rate in which the whole meal is used. Fat retards the emptying of the stomach. It makes the meal stay around considerably longer. In fact, if you look at the chart, it�s well over six times the staying power of a sugar only meal or snack.
This certainly explains why Ellen had such a rough morning. When I called her mother to find out what she had for breakfast she told me nothing. They were rushed that morning. Poor Ellen didn�t have anything to satisfy her hunger and fuel her body to get to school let alone give her the extra energy to focus on anything.

Fats

In her book, Ellen Satter not only talks about food balancing, but also gives us daily recommendations and servings for all of the basic food groups. �And for little children we do not limit fats. We serve to appetite!� This was my first introduction to the multi-faceted benefits of fat in a child�s diet.

Since I am a Montessori teacher and follow her timeless methodologies for guiding my students I decided to go back nearly hundred years and research everything she wrote on childhood nutrition. I found an entire chapter dedicated to Refection, the child�s diet in her book, the Montessori Method. The following was translated from Italian into English in 1912.�The fundamental substances of diet are three in number, starches, fats, and proteins.� Then she gives us a list of whole foods to serve to children such as meatballs made with grated meat and bread, milk, beaten eggs, and then fried in butter. She also gives us recipes for vegetable and beef purees and soups laden with naturally occurring saturated fats and olive oil.  �The diet of little children should be rich in fats for reserve matter. Instead of removing the grease from the broth it is well to add butter to it, or, a spoonful of olive oil but substitutes for butter, such as margarine should never be used.�

I had always heard that children require more fat in their diets than adults but I never understood why or it�s physiological complexities. Nor did I realize that the role of dietary fats and oils in human nutrition is one of the most important areas of concern and investigation in the field of nutritional science!

 The Joint Fats and Oils/World Health Organization, an international group of experts in nutrition, public health, food science, and technology conclude that both the amount and quality of dietary fat consumed can affect child growth and brain development. One of their main areas of concern is weaning. Between 50 to 60 per cent of energy provided from breast milk is from fat, and during the weaning period care needs to be taken to prevent dietary fat intakes from falling too rapidly or below the required levels. They recommend the use of fat, especially vegetable oils, in foods fed to weaning infants and young children as an effective way to maintain the energy density of their diets.

As I continued reading I came to understand what many researchers and nutritional scientists are also concerned with, the child�s consumption of adequate amounts of �essential fatty acids� which are needed for normal growth and development. AA (arachidonic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) are naturally occurring essential fatty acids in breast milk. They are extremely important for brain development and visual acuity in infants and young children. In well-nourished women, an average of approximately 2.2 grams of essential fatty acids are deposited in maternal and fetal tissues each day throughout pregnancy.

The experts recommend that during weaning and at least until 2 years of age 30-40 per cent of a child�s diet under two should provide these highly unsaturated fatty acids (omega-6 and omega-3) at levels similar to those in breast milk.

Essential fatty acid deficiencies during the early years can lead to a constellation of behavioral and learning difficulties later on such as impaired motor-coordination, difficulties with attention and impulse control, and delayed language and social skills.

Text continues after ad

 Professor Michael Crawford, director of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at the University of North London paints a colorful, scientific metaphor that illustrates the specialty in human brain nutrition as compared to that of the white rhinoceros. He compares the growth of the two brains pointing out that within a span of 4 years the white rhino weighs one ton and it�s brain weighs _�s of a pound. It consumes all of the protein it needs to reach its massive rate of body growth from the simplest food resource, grass. It does not get the lipids (fats) required for brain development. At 4 years of age a human child weighs about 44 pounds and his brain growth is nearly complete at close to 3 pounds.
 
�The province of early childhood development is focused on the brain. Body growth is something that happens later in life. Seventy percent of the energy that is devoted to fetal development is focused on the brain, and post natally it drops only to 60 %. The brain is not made of protein. Sixty percent of the structural material of the brain is fat or lipid. The reason for this high investment in lipids is that the brain functions by sending messages which are dependent on the lipid or fat properties of cell membrane being able to separate two water phases. This allows ionic charges to be built up on one side and held until a signal is received. The transmission of these messages involves the opening and closing of special channels, the action for which is intense in the brain and requires a high degree of flexibility within the membranes.�

Two lipids important to the brain are the omego-6 and the omega-3 fatty acids. Low levels of omega-3 fatty acids in a diet can cause vision problems especially by affecting the retina, which is composed of 30 percent highly unsaturated fatty acids. The Omega-6 oils are common to the foods we eat, such as salad dressing, mayonnaise, safflower and sunflower oil. Omega-3 fatty acids are found naturally in fish, flaxseed oil, wheat germ, and nuts and seeds.

In refection, the child�s diet Maria Montessori suggested that we feed our children only natural occurring fats. She tells us emphatically that fat substitutes like margarine or trans fats are not nutritionally sound for little learners Let�s talk about trans fats like the ones found in margarine, shortening, commercial cookies, cakes, candies, crackers, French fries, and in most breakfast, and energy bars. Trans fats are unsaturated vegetable oils such as soybean and cottonseed oil that have been injected with hydrogen, a pressured gas that changes the liquid oil into a solid and alters it�s molecular structure to resemble saturated fat. It�s man-made shortening! Trans fats aren�t natural or essential and provide no health benefit unlike saturated fat which is a natural fat found in oils, dairy and meat that provide energy and aids in the absorption of fat soluble vitamins. Trans fats fool the body and get into the places where natural fats should be and block the good fats from being absorbed into the body and destabilize cell membranes. They can even prevent the synthesis of important essential fatty acids.

Focusing

While discussing the effects of trans fats and their impact on �learning how to learn� Simon comes to mind. Despite conference after conference with his parents to express my concern for his learning indifference, limited concentration skills, and depressive state he still sachets into school after eating a breakfast bar at home drinking 8 ounces of take-out orange juice (a toddler sized portion is 2 ounces) and chewing on a fried fast food �unhappy� meal.

He walks around the classroom as if in a fog and I honestly don�t know if he can see the work on the shelves clearly enough to get excited about any of it. I asked his mother if he ever ate any fish or took any nutritional supplements and she said, �never.�

This could be where deficiencies of essential fatty acids comes into play in regards to vision which is a key component of brain development. Vision is learned. A child learns how to see just like he learns how to walk and talk. When learning how to walk or talk the child has the distinct opportunity of imitating his parents and siblings. In addition, parents can observe the child to determine if walking and talking are developing properly. Vision development on the other hand generally proceeds without much concerned awareness on the part of the parents.

The following are a few visual skills needed for academic success:

Visual acuity, clarity, sharpness:  How well a child can see at a distance of twenty feet or at a learning distance of approximately eleven to sixteen inches. (This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase learning to focus. There�s always that child in the classroom who takes a little bit longer to find the place on the shelf to return his activity or like Simon, has trouble finding work, period)

Binocular coordination: the ability to use two eyes together

Adequate convergence:  the demand for the eyes to go inward so they are aimed at the task at hand for developing hand eye coordination. If the eyes have a tendency to go outward, the child must use excess effort and energy to focus. In fact, in some children the eyestrain can create a short attention span. These children can become dyspraxic, dyslexic, and learning disabled.

Dr. Donald J. Getz published an article about eyesight in the journal of applied Nutrition. He ends his article with a paragraph about nutrition and vision.  I quote, �When I see a child with a learning problem, I feel very strongly that there usually is not just a single cause. For example, when I find a visual problem, if I probe a bit further a nutritional problem will be found as well. Children often walk into the office eating a candy bar or sipping on a cola or other sweet drink. When they are asked what they had for breakfast, the response usually falls in the sugary breakfast mode or the answer is no breakfast at all.�
Conclusion
I feel like the scattered pieces of this giant nutritional jigsaw puzzle are finally coming together however, these revelations wouldn�t be complete without mentioning a research scientist who like me was an educator and very interested in diet and it�s potential effect on learning styles. Though I don�t plan to go back to the University and get a doctorate degree in the field of nutrition and biochemistry like Dr.Alex Richardson I�d like to share some of her clinical findings and compelling words from the Nutrition Practitioner:
 �Current practice within our education and health care systems involves separate diagnostic labels for dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autistic spectrum disorders. Each refers to a specific pattern of behavioral and learning difficulties in the planning and coordination of movement. These developmental conditions are remarkably common, affecting up to 20% of the population to some degree, and they account for the vast majority of children with special educational needs. The associated difficulties usually persist into adulthood, with enormous consequences for the individuals affected, their families and society as a whole.
In none of these conditions is the possible role of nutrition considered as part of standard evaluation and management, despite its obvious and fundamental importance for optimal functioning of the brain. A whole range of micronutrients is essential in this respect, but in particular there is mounting evidence that deficiencies or imbalances in certain highly unsaturated fatty acids of the omego-3 and omega-6 series may contribute to both the predisposition and the development expression of dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD and autism.�
As educators, administrators, grandparents, and parents we must feed our children with the utmost of consciousness and responsibility so they can enter into the world with a natural learning style. It concerns me that poor nutritional habits can set a child up for patterns of erratic behavior, unfair consequence, and difficulty concentrating that could cause him a lifetime struggle.  

Maria Montessori teaches us to be active in preparing the classroom environment and take constant and meticulous care of it so the child has the "best" means for development. And I quote, "Always treat the child with the best of good manners and offer him the best you have in yourself and at your disposal."

Collectively, we must continue to take a serious interest in the child's "inner prepared environment," the nutritional playing field we can't see but whose impact can surely be measured through observation and investigation.




I would love to hear from you. Please send your questions or comments as they relate to this article or any aspect of very early childhood education to Jan Katzen-Luchenta.c/o Tomorrow�s child, etc. We will contact you if your request is printed, etc.

Joyce, here is where we could see if we could create a little column where I could answer your readers questions and concerns!

Jan Katzen-Luchenta is a teacher and the author of Awakening Your Toddler�s Love of Learning. She recently produced a classroom video, the making of great little people. Visit her website at www.thetoddlertutor.com


It would be greatly appreciated if I could place a little ad for my book, video and website by my article like the one you placed after my What is Toddler Education Anyway article. Could you add some text about the video and one of the pics from the video promo flyer I sent to Margot. Thanks and please email me if you need anything else or with any questions. The pictures will be mailed out ASAP!

All the best,

Jan-Katzen-Luchenta