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Children's Nutrition

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Eating well in the early years

Eating well is essential for children in their early years. Children from 1-4 years old need to eat well to establish good eating patterns, ensure they grow and develop appropriately, to protect their teeth and to ensure they arrive in school at a healthy body weight able to enjoy a variety of minimally processed foods.

First Steps Nutrition has a range of resources to support eating well in the early years:

  • Packed lunches for 1 to under 5 year olds

  • Snacks for 1 to under 5 year olds

  • Good food choices and portion sizes for 1 to under 5 year olds

  • Vegan infants and under 5s

  • Simple, cost effective recipes for the whole family

​Please see below links to their resources and information from the Food Standards Agency about how to minimise the risk of choking on food for younger children. 

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Eating well: Packed lunches for 1 to under 5 year olds

This guide has been written to provide practical ideas for anyone who is preparing packed lunches for children aged 1-under 5 years. We hope it will be particularly useful to early years settings who may want to provide guidance to families and child carers about how to provide a nutritious, cost-effective and practical packed lunch for children of this age. 

The packed lunches shown in this resource all provide the amount of energy (calories) needed by children of this age at a main meal and, if a range of packed lunches are eaten over a period of a week or more, they will provide the important nutrients that young children need to develop and grow. There are recipes within this guide that cater for vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, egg-free and dairy-free diets.

It contains practical advice, recipes and photos of portion sizes appropriate for different age groups.

Eating well: snacks for 1 to under-5 year olds

This resource provides ideas for snacks for children aged 1-under 5 years, that are both contributory to their nutritional intake and which are not damaging to emerging and developing teeth. 

There are ideas for easy snacks that could be useful when out and about, and snacks that can be offered in early years settings and that meet the new Voluntary food and drink guidelines for early years settings in England. There are recipes within this guide that cater for vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, egg-free and dairy-free diets.

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Good food choices and portion sizes for 1-under 5 year olds

This resource provides a visual support for health workers on the types of foods, and amounts of foods, that meet the needs of children aged 1-4 years.

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Eating well: vegan infants and under-5s

Families who choose a vegan diet may wish to bring their children up as vegans from birth, and it is important that all those that support families with infants and children on a vegan diet have clear, expert information on how to ensure energy and nutrient needs are met. ‘Eating well for vegan infants and under-5s’ contains practical advice, recipes and photos of portion sizes appropriate for different age groups. It also contains information on milk alternatives, cooking and ingredient tips for cooking for vegan children and useful sources of additional information to help health care professionals and those working in early years settings support vegan infants and children to eat well.

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Eating well recipe book
Simple, cost-effective ideas for the whole family

This recipe book provides some simple ideas for cost-effective recipes for the whole family, using minimal cooking equipment and skills. The recipes show appropriate portion sizes for a main meal (or dessert) for infants, children aged 1-4 years, children aged 5-11 years and for adults and older children. The recipes all use ingredients that can be purchased with Healthy Start vouchers. There are recipes within this guide that cater for vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, egg-free and dairy-free diets.

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How to reduce the risk of choking

Choking can happen with any food, but there are steps you can take to minimise the risks.

Food preparation:

  • remove any stones and pips from fruit before serving

  • cut small round foods, like grapes, strawberries and cherry tomatoes, lengthways and into quarters

  • cut large fruits like melon, and hard fruit or vegetables like raw apple and carrot into slices instead of small chunks

  • do not offer raisins as a snack to children under 12 months – although these can be chopped up as part of a meal

  • soften hard fruit and vegetables (such as carrot and apple) and remove the skins when first given to babies from around 6 months

  • sausages should be avoided due to their high salt content, but if offered to children these should be cut into thin strips rather than chunks and remove the skins

  • remove bones from meat or fish

  • do not give whole nuts to children under five years old

  • do not give whole seeds to children under five years old

  • cut cheese into strips rather than chunks

  • white bread can form a doughy ball in the throat, consider wholemeal or toasted bread and for very young children cut all types of bread into strips

  • do not give popcorn as a snack

  • do not give children marshmallows or jelly cubes from a packet either to eat or as part of messy play activities as they can get stuck in the throat

  • do not give children hard sweets

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