Tips for keeping your child healthy in the first 1,000 days

The words ‘nutrition’ and ‘fun’ haven’t always traditionally appeared together, but making healthy eating exciting is just one small action that could have a big impact on you and your family. 

Ensuring that the right things are going into your children doesn’t have to be a mundane task, and using these tips is just the start of a positive and healthier lifestyle:

 Pregnant Women

·         What you put in is what you get out (literally) – The risk of being overweight or obese starts before a baby is even born. 

Pregnant women who consume unhealthy foods containing excess amounts of sugar and fat are more likely to have overweight children and develop associated health problems. 

Maintaining a healthy diet during pregnancy lowers this risk, and creates a healthier start for your baby and a healthier life for you. 

Sugar Swap    

·         Swapping sugary snacks for ones that are lower in sugar - Swapping to a healthier option, such as water, or fresh juice instead of sugary drinks can make a huge difference to children’s calorie intake. 

Not just that, but it’s also better for their teeth.

Breast Milk

·        Providing your baby with breast milk will give them the best source of nutrients and help to reduce the risk of infection, digestive diseases and obesity but if breast feeding is not possible then using a low protein formula milk is the best alternative. 

Healthy nutrition in the first 1000 days of life, including breast milk or low protein formula milk and foods low in sugar will help protect your health, your children and future generations.

Snacks

·         Snack check - Many snacks are full of things that aren’t necessarily good for us – sugar, salt, fat and calories. 

So try and keep a careful eye on how many snacks the kids are having. Try and keep count of how many sweets, crisps, and biscuits are being consumed. 

Keeping count means you’re more likely to cut down – which is good for your kids and for your pocket too. 

Have any early childhood nutrition tips? Any health anecdotes from your own personal past? Feel free to share those along with these tips: #DigestiveHealthMonth @my_ueg