Resumo

ASSAO, Tatiana Yuri  e  CERVATO-MANCUSO, Ana Maria. Healthy eating habits: perceptions of childcare institution educators. Rev. bras. crescimento desenvolv. hum. [online]. 2008, vol.18, n.2, pp. 126-134. ISSN 0104-1282.

OBJECTIVE: To assess educators' perceptions of healthy eating habits within an educational environment. METHODS: Cross-sectional qualitative study in which the Collective Subject Discourse (CSD) was used, a methodology based on social representations that enabled organizing and arranging verbal qualitative data, obtained through interviews with 78 educators from eight public childcare centers in the municipality of Jandira, São Paulo. RESULTS: Healthy eating habits for children, according to such professionals, were perceived from different perspectives, such as: the issue of a varied and diversified diet; adequate quantity and quality, meeting both biological needs and food preferences; appropriate consistency, natural feature, and provided at right times. Much of the foundations of a healthy diet were mentioned; however, some important issues were not recalled, like food origin and preparation, having meals in calm environments and meeting emotional and social needs. Furthermore, among the listed items, some were contradictory and distorted, such as food preferences as compared to food likings and consistency. CONCLUSION: Most educators' perceptions about children's healthy eating habits, as observed from their discourse, still are deficient as compared to parameters designed to promote healthy eating practices for children. Such practices and perceptions could, in some cases, have an impact on the behavior of such professionals while performing eating activities.

Palavras-chave : Feeding; Children; Educators; Day-care centers.

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