Over the years, nutrition guidance in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings may have unintentionally contributed to practices or advice that feel restrictive or confusing for many children, families and educators. To combat this, Better Health Network, Early Learning Association Australia (ELAA), paediatric dietitian Dr Kyla Smith, The Embrace Collective’s Dr Zali Yager, state health promotion programs and several key experts partnered to reform ELAA’s Nutrition, Oral Health and Active Play Policy. The result is a significant shift toward developmentally appropriate, inclusive and supportive mealtimes that centre children’s health and wellbeing, and it came into effect in late February 2026.
Why nutrition policy matters in early childhood
Given that most children in Australia attend and consequently are exposed to half of their daily meals at ECEC settings, nutrition policy can have a significant effect on their relationships with food. ECEC nutrition policies play a critical role in shaping positive, developmentally appropriate food and mealtime environments. Evidence demonstrates that responsive feeding practices, respectful educator-child interactions, and inclusive approaches are essential for fostering children’s wellbeing, agency, and positive relationships with food.
Policies must provide clear, actionable guidance to educators on creating relaxed, respectful, and inclusive mealtimes, while also providing guidance on food provision. The framing, language, and structures embedded in these policies directly influence how educators approach food and mealtimes, shaping children’s experiences.
Navigating the complexity of nutrition policy in practice
ECEC’s operate within a system that is constantly shifting under increasingly more pressure. These settings are guided by key legislation, frameworks and regulatory bodies that set the standard for food provision across the ECEC sector. These require approved providers, supervisors and family day care educators to ensure adequate health and hygiene practices (Regulation 77), access to safe drinking water (Regulation 78), provision of food or beverages that are nutritious and adequate in quantity (Regulation 79) and a weekly menu is displayed and accessible (Regulation 80). The balance of creating a policy that captures the provision of nutritious and diverse foods (as per the regulations above) yet also supports children to build a positive relationship with food is less supported by regulatory guidance.
Within the National Quality Standards 2.3.1 the guidance is to “Promote Healthy Eating”. We know that the framing of healthy eating within ECEC policies, similar to that within school settings, has the potential to inadvertently promote an improper binary view of foods. Identifying foods as ‘everyday’ or ‘sometimes’ foods, similar to ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy’, “relies on a narrow biomedical understanding of food that fails to incorporate cultural aspects of foods and ignores household barriers”. This is the interpretation we see so clearly across ECEC settings.
Through deep reflective practice with educators and families (as part of the Better Health Network’s Mealtime Expectations project) and in consultation with the wider sector, the interpretation of “limit discretionary foods” or “promote healthy eating” has become a harmful practice in food surveillance, food policing, restrictive feeding practices and inappropriate food learning for pre-school aged children.
Partnering with ELAA to review their Nutrition, Oral Health and Active Play Policy played an integral role in shifting the policy landscape to better reflect developmentally appropriate mealtimes and food provision in a non-stigmatising way.
