The NICE guidance, published this week, is also aimed at schools and a range of professionals working with children. It urges settings to prioritise 'preventing excess weight gain and improving children's diet and activity levels'.
Nurseries and other facilities should 'minimise sedentary activities during play time, and provide regular opportunities for active play and structured physical activity sessions'.
Staff should make sure that children eat regularly and enjoy healthy meals in 'a pleasant, sociable environment free from other distractions' and, where possible, staff should eat with the children.
NICE said settings should also implement guidance on food procurement and healthy catering already produced by the DfES, the Food Standards Agency and the Caroline Walker Trust charity.
This would help halt the annual rise in obesity among children under 11 by 2010 and ensure the requirements of the National Service framework for children were met.
Olivia Foley, a director of the Hungry Caterpillar's three day nurseries in Middlesex, said that one of her fellow directors is a chef and helps plan healthy menus which include fruit and vegetables grown by the children in the nursery gardens.
She said, 'We order food twice a week so that it is all fresh. We also have a company called Fitness and Fun who come to the nurseries and do fitness classes with children.'
The guidance can be found at www.nice.org.uk.
