Helping Your Child Be Healthy
Helping children to eat healthily and be more physically active in their early years is very important for their health. This establishes healthy lifestyle behaviours that they can continue to use in their older childhood and into adulthood. Start well wants children to eat well, be active and achieve more.
The Start well programme is based around 8 key characters and their messages to help early years settings, parents and health professionals create a healthier environment for our children and families. Your child will learn about these characters in nursery to help them develop healthy lifestyles.
You can find out more about the Start well programme on their website:
Is your child getting their five a day?
Here’s an easy way to keep your meals healthy:
Swap sweets for a piece of fruit or some sliced vegetables as a snack. It’s good to serve some vegetables raw because this preserves more of their vitamins, which can be lost during cooking. You can also make a warm soup and pair it with strips of brown bread for dipping. For snacks, create a low-calorie dip for vegetable sticks or use low-fat yogurt with fruit sticks for dipping. Instead of soda, choose fruit juice and mix it with soda water to make a fizzy, low-calorie drink. Finally, add small pieces of fruit to cereal or top toast with sliced banana for a nutritious breakfast.
What is a portion ?
We often say we should eat five portions of fruits or vegetables each day. But what counts as one portion?
A simple way to know is if it fits in the palm of your hand, then it’s one portion.
For example, one pear, orange, apple, or banana is one portion. A handful of grapes, strawberries, or dried fruits is also one portion. For peas, beans, sweetcorn, or chopped fruits and vegetables, use three tablespoons to measure one portion.