Early years healthy weight
Establishing a good routine for your toddler, including regular meal and snack times, regular sleep and nap times will help your toddler to maintain a healthy weight. A healthy lifestyle and weight in these early years helps reduce the risks of being overweight during childhood and adulthood.
The developmental stages of a child in their early years are crucial to a child's development and wellbeing for the rest of their life. A child carrying excess weight can affect day to day tasks for them, such as struggling to stand up from sitting, coordination, difficulty sleeping, and behaviour problems relating to high sugar intake. Changing unhealthy habits can be very difficult.
We all want our children to enjoy their childhood, and taking part in activities we hope all children have the opportunities to take part in, such as playing in the park. Being a healthy weight will help a child to enjoy these activities.
A child is regularly measured (see NHS: Baby weight and height (opens new window)) in their early years at Health Visitor contacts up until the age of 5 years old. From the age of 2 years old, you can calculate your child's body mass index (BMI) using the NHS healthy weight calculator (opens new window). You must enter the date of birth and gender for your child, as it is calculated differently to adults.
You can use the BMI growth charts (opens new window) to plot your child's BMI using the centiles. For more information on using these charts, speak to your GP.
Top Tips for healthy weight in early years
Being a good role model for your child will encourage them to follow your healthy behaviours. Sign your family up to Better Health: Healthier Families - Easy ways to eat well and move more (opens new window) or Start4life Mums (opens new window) to hear about new tips, recipes, competitions and offers to keep your family healthy together.
Toddlers should be encouraged to try/eat a range of foods from each food groups and learning about where the food has come from. Keep trying with foods they show any dislike to; research suggests repeating food regularly 13 times will encourage a child accepting the food.
Eating well in the early years (firststepsnutrition.org) (opens new window)
There are lots of drinks marketed towards children that contain high amounts of sugar, which can have detrimental effects on their weight and dental health. Choose the right milk and be sugar smart. We should encourage children to drink water as much as possible.
Choose the right milk (opens new window)
Better Health: Healthier Families - Sugar (opens new window)
A diet high in sugar can not only affect a child's weight, but also their dental health. Find out more about NHS: Children's drinks and cups (opens new window) and NHS: Looking after your baby's teeth (opens new window).
Children should limit their time spent sat down to no more than 2 hours a day. Limiting screen time and having toys available for children will help. Better health start for life: Baby moves (opens new window) has ideas on how to encourage your child to sit less and play more.
GOV.UK: Collection - Physical activity guidelines (opens new window) include 3 hours of physical activity a day.
Ensuring a child's environment is safe will give your child the opportunity to be more active. The Child accident prevention trust (opens new window) offers advice about child safety in your home.
Evidence shows the link between parental obesity and childhood obesity. Support is available in Wiltshire for Healthy weight in adults.
Evidence shows mothers that smoke are more likely to have overweight children. There are also a range of Smoking and your health to children who breathe in secondhand smoke. Get support to quit smoking from Smokefree Wiltshire.
What support is available in early years?
Family Hubs offer a range of courses for parents to learn more about a healthy lifestyle for the whole family, including cooking and parenting courses.
Healthy Start (opens new window) pre-paid card can be used to spend on healthy foods and claim free vitamins (from Family Hubs) during pregnancy and following birth (up until your child's 4th birthday). To check your eligibility and to apply for healthy start see Healthy Start (NHS): How to apply (opens new window). Also speak to your midwife, health visitor, Family Hub or library for more information.
For support on breastfeeding and to find out about Breastfeeding Peer Support groups in Wiltshire see Pregnancy, breastfeeding and early parenthood.
Wiltshire Council, including libraries and leisure centres, are showing their support for mothers to breastfeed comfortably when out and about by welcoming breastfeeding in their venues.
Remember: you have the right to breastfeed anywhere.
Encourage your family to walk or cycle when you could avoid using your car, get support to plan a safe route to walk using Connecting Wiltshire (connectingwiltshire.co.uk) (opens new window).
Sign up to Start4life: NHS - information service for parents (opens new window) for advice and support for you and your baby, including information on Benefits of Breastfeeding (opens new window), NHS: First Foods (opens new window) and Better health start for life: Baby moves (opens new window).
For individual support or any concerns you have about your child's weight and nutrition speak to your HCRG Care Group: Health Visiting (0 – 4 Years) (opens new window), who can offer support and advice and signpost to local services.
To get support on achieving your healthy lifestyle goals you may want to seek support from our Health Coach team. The Health Coach team can offer 6 sessions of one-one support for weight management, stopping smoking and emotional wellbeing. They will help to build confidence and motivation to enable you to achieve your goals.
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