Children and Healthy Eating

Children aged 1 to 4 years are growing really quickly so they need a healthy mix of food in smaller amounts. This is to make sure they get everything they need in toddler sized portions. Things you can do to help make your child’s food as healthy as possible are:

• Keep to a routine with meals and snacks when you can
• Aim for 3 small main meals per day with a good mix of healthy food, and offer 2-3 snacks per day like fresh fruit or yoghurt. Try slowly adding high fibre starchy foods to their diet, these can fill up little tummies very quickly meaning your child might ignore other important bits of their meal

Some food tastes and textures take a little practice to eat, but we know that young children who are able to learn about healthy food by eating it early on will find it easier to eat that way for life.

We know that foods and drinks that are high in sugar are best kept as special treats and eaten only sometimes, and are also better as part of a meal. By having less special treats we help children learn to enjoy foods that are low in sugar as well as making sure they don’t get too much food energy from sugar or risk problems with their teeth.

We recommend working towards making meals match the healthy mix of food in The Eatwell Guide by the time your child is 5.

From 5 years onwards children and adults should follow the recommendations outlined in the Eatwell Guide:

• Eat at least 5 portions of a mixture of fruit and vegetables every day
• Use higher fibre starchy foods in meals, like potatoes in their skins, wholegrain breads, rice or pastas
• Have some dairy or dairy alternatives (soya/oat/nut milks/yoghurts)
• Eat some beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other protein
• Choose unsaturated oils and spreads instead of saturated fats, and eat these in small amounts
• Drink plenty of fluids, at least 6 to 8 glasses a day- water is best

You do not need to achieve this balance at every meal; it is a guide to the mixture of foods you should be eating over a day or a week.

Portion sizes will be different for children and young people. Generally the bigger and older they are, the bigger their portions need to be. Because teenagers are growing quickly, they have higher food energy needs so portion sizes can be the same as an adult’s. If you have more active children they will need to eat more. Using our hands can give us a good idea of portion sizes for each of the family, as our hand sizes match our energy needs!  

Have a look at the British Nutrition Foundation for more information for toddler portion sizes through the 5532 guide Nutrition for toddlers and pre-schoolers up to teenage + adult recommendations Portion sizes | British Nutritional Foundation 

Quick tips:  

• Start meals with small servings and let your child ask for more if they're still hungry. 

• Avoid making your child finish everything on the plate or eat more than they want to. 

• Use smaller plates for younger children, as adult-size plates could encourage them to eat oversized portions. 

• Encourage your child to eat slowly and have set mealtimes. 

Food labels can help you to choose foods which have healthier amounts of energy, fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt. Some food packaging has traffic light labels with high (red), medium (orange) or low (green), this is an easy way to see how much fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt are inside.

• Red traffic lights mean the food or drink contains a high amount of the type of ingredient so we should try to have these foods less often or eat them in small amounts.
• Orange traffic lights means the food contains a medium amount of this type of ingredient so if a food contains mostly orange you can eat it most of the time.
• Green traffic lights means the food contains a low amount of this type of ingredient, so the more green lights a label has the healthier the choice.

We can use the traffic light labels to choose more foods with greens and oranges, and use less reds. We can see more easily if other similar products have lower amounts of sugar, fats and salts.

Find out more about food labels.