A designer of children’s toys has spoken out about the importance of getting children interested in healthy eating early on in their education.
Yorkshire designer Kim Johnson, who produced the award-winning FunPod, says that re-introducing cooking lessons into the national curriculum and adopting healthy menus in the fight against child obesity is not enough. “As a mum and manufacturer in the nursery sector, I see shocking statistics about the health of today’s children,” she said. “It’s all very well changing menus in schools and re-introducing ‘domestic science’, but we parents need to get toddlers interested in food much earlier than school.”
“Child experts tell us that children form their habits and opinions between the ages of two and four, so it’s so important to get them involved before school so that a healthy food education is a way of life,” added Johnson. “Our generation will be the first set to outlive our kids, because of today’s fast food culture so we need to do something now before it’s too late.”
With more than 42,800 toddlers falling victim to kitchen-related accidents every
year, Johnson saw an opportunity to get kids involved with food without putting them in danger. Replacing all of those precarious unsafe methods that children may employ to see what is happening on the work surface, the FunPod gives a child their own safely constructed platform to engage with their parent without the danger of toppling. The FunPod is now available within more than 100 retailers nationwide.
