Staff, families and children at Foster Early Learning, Welshpool Kindergarten, Allora Kindergarten, Karmai Community Children’s Centre, Bass Coast Children’s Centre and Bass Coast Family Day Care educator Aga Tynska are all smiles after receiving their Smiles 4 Miles award.
Smiles 4 Miles is an initiative of Dental Health Services Victoria which aims to improve the oral health of Victorian children and their families. The key messages promoted in Smiles 4 Miles are Drink well, Eat well and Clean well. The program is implemented locally by the South Coast Prevention Team (Health Promotion workforce of Bass Coast Health, Gippsland Southern Health Service and South Gippsland Hospital).
We all want our children to thrive. Unfortunately, children with tooth decay and poor oral health can have trouble eating, sleeping and paying attention at kindergarten. Tooth decay, an oral disease, affects half of all children and adolescents. The percentage of children in Bass Coast and South Gippsland aged 0-5 attending public dental services who have at least one decayed, missing or filled tooth is 25% and 27%, respectively, which is above the Victorian average.
Early childhood services achieve the Smiles 4 Miles award by implementing healthy eating and oral health policies, completing a menu assessment if they provide food, engaging families about the importance of oral health, and educating children through a variety of fun learning experiences based on the key messages – Drink well, Eat well and Clean well.
Early Childhood Teacher Amy Rogers from Foster Early Learning was excited to see the service awarded.
She says, “We know that good oral health is essential to overall health and wellbeing and it’s rewarding to achieve our award and know we’re teaching children these good habits early in life.”
Paul Greenhalgh, Chief Executive Officer at South Gippsland Hospital, applauded the early childhood services for receiving their awards.
“These Smiles 4 Miles awarded early childhood services are leading the way to help children form good healthy eating and oral health habits early," he said.
“By promoting healthy habits early in life, you are helping to set the foundations for our children to have a healthy start to life.”