Mr Leitch, who was speaking at the launch of Ten Steps for Healthy Toddlers, a new publication from the Infant and Toddler Forum that the Alliance is endorsing, said nurseries are 'crying out' for advice on portion sizes and how to provide healthy food on tight budgets.
He said, 'When the Pre-School Learning Alliance began running nurseries six years ago, we looked for guidance on nursery food. There was nothing on the education department's website and only two paragraphs from the NHS.'
He also criticised the Government for refusing to provide financial support for the Alliance's Feeding Young Imaginations, a healthy eating initiative that aimed to improve information on nutrition for practitioners and parents.
He said, 'For several years we knocked on the doors of both the Department of Health and what was the Department of Children, Schools and Families, but we have never received a penny of support for the work that we have done. We found that conversations about nursery food very quickly reverted to conversations about school food and we felt that we were being sent from department to another.'
Ten Steps for Healthy Toddlers aims to help parents, carers and healthcare professionals make informed choices about what to feed young children.
The steps include offering a child six to eight drinks a day, giving supplements of vitamins A and D each day, and offering a range of nutritious foods but letting a child decide how much to eat. The guidance also includes information on recommended portion sizes for young children in a range of foods from the five food groups.
Dr Atul Singhal, chair of the Infant and Toddler Forum, said, 'To approach feeding toddlers with confidence, carers need consistent, simple and sound advice that can be applied everywhere toddlers are fed. This is exactly what the ITF has developed with Ten Steps for Healthy Toddlers. The Ten Steps is an easy-to-use guide for parents and carers on what food to offer toddlers, what behaviour to encourage and how best to manage mealtimes.'
- Further information: View the guidance at www.infantandtoddlerforum.org
