As I mentioned in a earlier post, I will be reviewing and recommending children’s board games that my kids have played and absolutely love!

Tummy Ache Board Game
By Orchard Toys

Ages 3+
Players 2-4

Players each have a table setting board.

Players take turns to pick a card to place on their board – which might be a healthy food card or a rotten “tummy ache” card.

The aim is to create a healthy meal. Rotten food cards can be replaced by a healthy food cards on a following turn.

Overall this game was excellent!

It was very easy to play. The pictures were so so so cute! The kids enjoyed examining all the cards.

It made my kids talk about:

1) why the healthy food cards are good (broccoli is a vegetable, and vegetables are good for you!),
2) why some foods are better to eat than others (fruit is a better dessert than ice cream, because there’s too much sugar in ice cream!), and
3) why the tummy ache foods were bad (hot chips are too oily).

It repeated my lessons on healthy eating, and “too much bad food will give you a tummy ache”.

But I had to realise that this was just a funny little game, and probably not designed solely for health education. So there were a few inconsistencies that bugged me – eg. There were lettuce and tomato cards that were categorised as rotten. A suspiciously sweet looking ice cream + jelly + coloured sprinkles “healthy” card (which was spotted by my 5 yo).

It also inspired them to create a new version of the game – making a dinner menu for our real dinner!

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