Families of young children

Citation

(2012), "Families of young children", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 42 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/nfs.2012.01742daa.003

Families of young children

Article Type: Food facts From: Nutrition & Food Science, Volume 42, Issue 4

Families with children under three need better practical support if they are to encourage positive feeding habits from an early age, cautions an influential group of experts on childhood nutrition and development.

The Infant & Toddler Forum (ITF) has welcomed recent government focus on early intervention, highlighting the earliest years as key to positive outcomes in later life. However, if intervention strategies are to tackle the long-term impact of children’s poor nutritional and physical health, expert advice that supports families in early years feeding must be a key element. Dr Atul Singhal, Professor of Paediatric Nutrition at the UCL Institute of Child Health and Chair of the ITF, says: Early intervention strategies make up a large part of government plans to tackle health and social inequalities, but practical guidance on how to attain good nutrition and feeding is largely missing. “Toddlers” eating habits are hugely influenced at home, and this is the key period when lifelong dietary preferences and eating habits are formed. If we want to see an improvement in health and wellbeing, now and in the future, it’s vital that families have easy access to simple, evidence-based advice on what and how to feed toddlers.

Supporting families of young children to develop healthy eating habits will be at the heart of the ITF’s 2012 activities, including:

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  the development of new practical information on menu planning, meal suggestions and drinks; and

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  ongoing work with childcare and health organisations to encourage wider adoption of the ITF’s “Ten Steps for Healthy Toddlers”, an easy-to-use guide on what food to offer, what eating behaviours to encourage and how t to manage mealtimes.

Visit web site: www.infantandtoddlerforum.org<http