Targeted Healthy Lifestyle Pilot

Our food groups and portion size session covers:

• What a balanced meal and diet should look like depending on you baby’s/child’s age (adapted to your family/cultural needs)
• Portion sizes and ME size meals.
• Good hydration

Helpful resources:

The Eatwell Guide - NHS (don’t worry if the food represented here don’t look like what you eat, we have many adapted version for you to choose from.)

Baby and toddler meal ideas - NHS

Nutrition for toddlers and pre-schoolers

Healthy Hydration

In the sugar session we cover:

• The types of sugar found in our food and how to look for them on food labels.
• Different ideas to reduce sugar intake
• How to look after our teeth
• The session is really practical, and we bring examples of the foods you’ve told us is in your diet

Helpful resources

Sugar: the facts - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

How to cut down on sugar in your diet - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Sugar and your health - British Dietetic Association (BDA)

In the fats and salt session we cover:

• the different types of fats found in food.
• top tips on to how reduce fats linked to health conditions.
• different cooking methods that impact fat content.
• what too much salt can do to our health and tips and information on how to reduce this within our diet.
• The session is really practical, and we bring examples of the foods you’ve told us is in your diet

Helpful resources:

Facts about fat - NHS

How to eat less saturated fat - NHS - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Salt in your diet - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

In this session we cover what food labelling is and why we use it. As well as how we use it when shopping and buying products.

The NHS has a food scanner app that you can use to find healthy food alternatives.

Food labels - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Fussy eating is incredibly hard to define because it can mean something different to each family. Although limited eating can be very stressful as a parent/carer, fussy eating is very common and often part of normal development for children.

What can impact eating?

• Growth rate

• As toddlers grow up they want to gain more independence and one way to do this is to chose what they will and won’t eat. Refusal is a completely normal stage and offering small guided choices through the day can help with this.
• Constipation
• Mealtime environment
• Other shorter term impacts on eating can include teething, feeling unwell, being over tired, being full from milk.

What are we aiming for? Balance and variety

We should try to offer something everyday from the 4 food groups.

It can be easy to fall into the trap of offering bigger portions of food groups children enjoy and this leaves little room in their tummies to try other foods. (Check out our information on the Eatwell guide) It’s important your child has an appetite to try other foods, which may also mean looking at timing of snacks too.

Food environment is just as important as what we eat….. Aim for Mellow Mealtimes        

Sometimes it’s important to take a step back and think about what the mealtime environment is like before we consider what they are eating. The environment plays such an important role in how much they enjoy this time.          

Should I use food as a reward?

Try to avoid using food as a reward or distraction. Doing this can make sweets and chocolates seem much more appealing than the dinners you are offering. Try to use non food related rewards such as playing their favourite game together or a trip to the park.

Food Play!

Food doesn’t need to be limited to just mealtimes. The more children are exposed to foods the more likely they are to accept them. Get messy and enjoy food without pressure to eat!

Sometimes despite your best effort, your child is still struggling and you might want or need further help. Please contact your GP or the Children’s Public Health 0-19 Nursing Service if:

• You are worried about your child's growth (Your GP or Health Visitor should be able to advise you with this)
• There is a food group that your child eats nothing from
• Suffering from constipation
• Eat less than 20 different foods in total
• Eating non- food items
• You are worried about chewing or swallowing issues
• Your child doesn’t always have enough energy/is tired
• Extreme prolonged anxiety/fear around foods

In this session we cover different types of physical activity, information on why we need to be active and the amount of physical activity we need in a day. As well as give tips and information on where to find different physical activity ideas.

Sleep

In this session we cover why sleeps important for our health and tips on how to get a good nights sleep. We also look at sleep routines and how to create relaxed bedroom environments.

Children - The Sleep Charity

The Lullaby Trust - Safer sleep for babies, Support for families

Screen time

• In this session we cover the importance of not having loads of screen time and ways to cut this down. Also what the health implications are if we have too much.

Recommendations from World Health Organisation (WHO)

• No screen time for children 0-2 years old
• Up to 1 hour of screen time a day for children 2-4 years old

Top tips

1. Turn off background TV.
2. Limit your child’s access to the TV, iPad/tablet/computer and phone.
3. Spend time playing with your child.
4. Talk to your child about the world around them.