I blame the sleepless nights. Why else would I have written Mini First Aid’s second children’s book whilst on my previous ‘maternity leave’?! As soon as I’d written my first book ‘The Mini Adventures of Freddie’ and saw how much young children enjoyed the story; I started thinking about other ideas to help make learning first aid fun and memorable for young children.
During our adult classes, parents kept telling us about how scared they often felt about their child choking, especially when trying them on more solid chunks of food. So we went away and gathered the hard facts. In a survey amongst parents at our classes across the UK, we found that over 60% of them named choking as their number 1 medical fear.
So over a number (!) of sleepless nights with our first set of twins; the idea for our 'Sit, Chop, Chew' storybook was born. I felt it was important to take a big step back and empower families first and foremost. Sit, Chop, Chew sees Freddie and his friends eating together at nursery and learning about food. The book aims to teach children (and grownups) the importance of safe eating. By this I mean: Sitting together; chopping our food into bitesize chunks; and chewing our food properly.
With 6 children, I know more than anyone how difficult it can be to get everyone eating at the table together. Whilst it’s all about balance, we need to remember how much our children learn from us so it is vital we model safe eating too. (Memo to self – do not inhale food in front of the other children between cluster feeds!)
We didn’t stop with the story of course.
Following the success of our first award winning Early Years class, we have created a ‘Sit, Chop, Chew’ Early Years Class. The hands-on class engages children as young as three years old through song, story, actions and play to teach the key messages of the class: Sit, Chop, Chew. Children even get the chance to practise back blows on teddy and to chop up their own food.
So this week, another chapter of Sit Chop Chew begins. We’re all super excited at Mini First Aid. We are working with the fantastic online network of Mums: Mummy Social to hold a series of Sit, Chop, Chew picnics for groups of Mums across the UK. During each picnic, our Mini First Aid trainers will talk about the principles of safe eating, give a choking demonstration and read ‘Sit Chop Chew’ to the young children at the picnic.
We have so much more to tell you about Sit, Chop, Chew, but I think you have plenty to ‘chew on’ for now – excuse the pun (sorry not sorry!)
For further details about how you can get involved, CLICK HERE
COMPETITION!
To celebrate the launch of our safe eating campaign, Sit, Chop, Chew, we have a fantastic safe eating bundle worth £43 to give away to help promote safe eating for children.
The prize includes an award winning cutlery set from Nana's Manners, which supports children to eat independently, a pack of Nana's Manners conversation cards, which promotes family mealtimes, our award winning Mini First Aid kit which is the ideal size for taking on your travels, and our new 'Sit, Chop, Chew' book which teaches children about the importance of safe eating practices.
Visit our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages to enter.
