Nutritional needs for toddlers and young children

Aims / Objectives

• Fact around children’s healthy eating

• Importance of healthy breakfast

• Portion sizes

• Packed lunches

• Top tips for parents

Fact around children’s healthy eating

• Some young children have nutritional problems that can have immediate and long-term effects on their health (weight), growth and development. Food allergies, iron deficiency, tooth decay and constipation are common in the early years.

Does it really matter what children eat?

• Yes. Evidence shows that when children eat better, they do better – in many different ways:

• Better health – the food children eat today shapes how they will eat for the rest of their lives. Too many children are still growing up overweight or obese because of poor diet, while others are malnourished. (Research shows that better food in schools is improving what children eat during the school day, and there’s growing evidence to suggest that in schools where more children have school meals, fewer pupils are dangerously overweight).

• Better achievement and behaviour – there’s a clear link between what children eat at lunchtime in school, where they eat it and how they focus with their teachers in the afternoon. Improve the first two and children concentrate better in the afternoons.

• Better diet overall – research shows that better food in schools affects what children choose to eat at other times too. When children have better cooking skills, their ability to recognise healthier foods improves and they eat a healthier diet (Parents should encourage their children in setting meal plans and preparing meals).

Healthy Breakfast

• Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It allows us to ‘break’ our overnight ‘fast’. Children under 5 need a healthy breakfast based on breads and cereals but including a variety of foods.

Breakfast Ideas For the Under 5s

• √ Porridge with sliced banana or chopped fruit• √ Wholegrain breakfast cereal with milk• √ Full fat yogurt or fromage frais with chopped

fruit (fresh or canned)• √ Wholegrain or white toast with spreads and

toppings such as low sugar jams, marmite, soft cheese, scrambled eggs

Health Portions• Some parents say that their child just stops eating

when they’ve had enough, but others find that their child will go on eating and eating until they are told to stop. All children are different and may need different amounts of food depending on how they feel and what they have been doing that day – e.g. a child who has been running around all day will need more food than one who isn’t feeling very well.

Healthy portions / snacks

Packed lunches with a nutritional punch

• When children eat better at lunchtime, they do better in class in the afternoon. But research also shows that the vast majority of packed lunches aren’t meeting the same healthy standards as school meals.

Packed lunches

• Only around one in ten packed lunches in England meet children’s nutritional needs. A balanced diet is about eating lots of different foods to get the nutrients you need, and it’s hard to get that variety into lunchboxes.

• So if you’re going down the packed lunch route, be prepared to put in a fair bit of time and effort.

Examples of healthy packed lunch

Top Tips for parents• Don't forget! Children aged 1-4 years don't eat set portion sizes like many

adults do• How much they eat varies widely from day to day and meal to meal. In

general, if your 1-4 year old is taller or more active he/she will eat larger portions of some foods than if he/she is smaller or less active.

• Allow your child to eat to his/her appetite. Don't urge young children to finish everything on the plate or to eat more than they wish to.

• Be careful about how much milk and milk products your toddler / child consumes, as too much can reduce appetites for iron-containing foods. Also, small portion sizes have been recommended for the foods high in fat and sugar because these low nutrient, energy-dense foods should be limited to prevent toddlers becoming overweight or obese.

References• Children’s Food Trust (2013) Eat Well Do Better: Packed lunches. Online. Available

from: http://www.childrensfoodtrust.org.uk/parents/schoolfood/packedlunches (Accessed 29 December 2013).

• Infant Toddler Forum (2013) Online. Available from: www.infantandtoddlerforum.org (Accessed 29 December 2013).

• Cooke, L. (no date) Cbeebies: Portion sizes for kids. Online. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/article/portion-sizes-for-kids (Accessed 29 December 2013).

• Change for life (2013) Eat Well: Lunch boxes. Online. Available from: http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/Pages/healthy-lunchbox-picnic.aspx (Accessed 29 December 2013).