Creating Eating Well resources Previous Trustees
An independent public health nutrition charity that provides information and resources to support eating well from pre-conception to five years
 
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Eating well in the early years

Eating well is essential for children in their early years. You can find information about eating well in the first year in our Infant & New Mums section. 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.

We have a range of resources to support eating well in the early years, including a resource to support infants and children on a vegan diet and resources which provide ideas for packed lunches and consider good food choices and portion sizes for 1-4 year olds. Our recipe book provides examples of simple, cost-effective nutritious meals that the whole family can enjoy with portion size information for adults, school-aged children, 1-4 year olds and infants. We also have some additional information to support early years settings in encouraging a sustainable approach to their food. On this webpage you can also find a poster which provides a simple guide to eating well for under 5s.

 
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Eating well: Packed lunches for 1-4 year olds

This guide has been written to provide practical ideas for anyone who is preparing packed lunches for children aged 1-4 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.

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Eating well: snacks 1-4 year olds

This resource provides ideas for snacks for 1-4 year olds, 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 1-4 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.

Eating well: 6 months to 2 years
for South Asian Children

This resource prepared in collaboration with the Nurture Early for Optimal Nutrition (NEON) programme summarises the importance of eating well between 6 and 24 months and shows how this can be achieved through providing nutritionally appropriate, affordable, culturally-tailored South Asian age-appropriate recipes based on unprocessed and minimally processed foods.

There is currently no hard copy available of this resource but if you would like to have a printed copy of it, please express your interest by emailing admin@firststepsnutrition.org

 

Healthy Start and Best Start Foods
A practical guide

The aim of this guide is to provide support to families to help them to get the most out of the Healthy Start scheme in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, or the Best Start Foods scheme in Scotland. The guide provides a range of healthy family recipes using ingredients that can be bought through the Healthy Start or Best Start Foods schemes, and shows how these can feed the whole family.

There is no hard copy available of this resource, but a local printer could produce copies from the pdf if needed.

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Eating Well Sustainably:
A Guide for Early Years Settings

This downloadable resource provides guidance to early years settings on how they can shop, store and cook food sustainably and involve children in food growing.

The resource contains ideas for seasonal recipes following sustainability principles, and links to other useful resources and available support in this area.

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Poster
Eating well for 1-4 year olds
The Three golden Rules

 
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