Good food and healthy eating habits are essential elements for a happy life, so it is vital that you provide your child with these from the very beginning of their introduction to family meals

Extract taken from Feeding Made Easy by Gina Ford

As children are growing and developing faster than they will at any other time of their lives, it is vital that their nutritional requirements are satisfied. These days there is so much conflicting advice about what constitutes a healthy diet and such an abundance of 'ready-meals' claiming to be what you and your family need, that it can be difficult for parents to know what to feed their children.

Basically, the nutrients essential for healthy growth and development are: Carbohydrates, proteins, fat, vitamins, minerals and trace elements. These are all found in the four main food groups:

• Milk and dairy products, such as yoghurt and cheese
• Carbohydrates or starchy foods, such as potatoes, bread, pasta, rice and other grains
• Meat and meat alternatives, including, poultry, fish, pulses, eggs, nuts, quinoa and soya
• Fruit and vegetables, including root vegetables, leafy green vegetables, salad vegetables, and all fruit and fruit juices

If you ensure that you offer your child food from all four groups at every meal, you will be giving him a well-balanced diet, containing all the essential nutrients. To achieve optimum nutrition, it is important to provide a range of different foods and not to keep offering the same familiar favourites.

By preparing nutritious meals and snacks for your child, you will be establishing all-important healthy eating habits from the outset. As well as avoiding highly-processed food and additives, which I find can trigger health, behavioural and sleep problems in some children, you will also be laying firm foundations for enjoyment of good home-cooked, healthy food. Children who are offered a varied diet are less likely to become fussy eaters, but, nevertheless, many children do go through a period of fussiness.

This should be short-lived, however, and you can be confident meanwhile that you are providing excellent nutrition and have not caused your child's fussiness by offering ready-made foods and processed snacks, laden with salt, sugar and empty calories.

Understanding labels

Eating healthily starts with shopping healthily, and shopping healthily starts with reading and understanding labels. The labels are the equivalent of the small print in a contract - they contain all the information you need to know about the food you're buying. If you want to eat healthily, become an avid reader of the small print, and avoid relying on the health claims on the front of the pack. The better you become at reading labels, the quicker you can sort healthy from unhealthy food.

The most informative label is the list of ingredients. Food that is good for you should contain simple, clear ingredients, much like the ones you would have used had you cooked the dish at home.

For the same reason, steer clear of lengthy lists. Nutritious food invariably contains fewer rather than more ingredients. The list is arranged in descending order, with the ingredient in the largest quantity first and the smallest last. Use that as a quick reference. If the first or second ingredient is sugar or fat, this food item is likely to be unhealthy.

Check how many E numbers the list contains. E numbers, or additives, are required in the commercial production of food to ensure a long shelf life, flavour, look and texture. Their presence in food means that the item was processed, removed from its natural state and made convenient and possibly not healthy. The longer the list of additives; the more processed and therefore less healthy the food. If you don't understand what the ingredients on the list are, don't eat them.

How much sugar?

Look for the 'no added sugar' or 'unsweetened' label, and check the list of ingredients for sugar disguised under another name, such as sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, corn syrup and honey. If any of these are high on the list, the product probably has a high sugar content. Up to 10g (approximately one third of an oz) sugar (marked as carbohydrates) per 100g (approximately 3.5 oz) would be a tolerable amount.

How much salt?

About 75 per cent of the salt we take in comes from processed foods. In other words, most of the salt we eat is already in the foods we buy. This makes it extra-important to check labels whenever possible. Salty-tasting foods, such as salted crisps or ham, are not the only ones high in salt.

Foods not thought of as salty, such as some breakfast cereals, can also contain a very high level of salt.

When reading labels, the amount may be given as salt or as sodium, which is one of the chemical components in salt. This can be confusing, but you simply multiply the sodium value by 2.5 to get the salt value. Look at the salt or sodium value per 100g (3.5oz) of the food. However, be aware that this is a maximum - it is much better for children to have a lower level than this.

Children under two years of age should not have salt added to their food. They get all the salt they need from natural sources such as vegetables. Adding salt to a young baby's food can be very dangerous as it may put a strain on his immature kidneys.

Research also shows that children who develop a taste for salt early in life may be more prone to heart disease later. When your baby reaches the stage of joining in with family meals, it is important that you do not add salt to the food during cooking. Remove your baby's portion, then add salt for the rest of the family if necessary. As with sugar, many processed foods and commercially prepared meals contain high levels of salt. It is important to check the labels on these foods carefully before giving them to your toddler.

Remember that unprocessed foods such as fruit, vegetables, grains, pulses, milk, eggs, fish, meat and poultry contain very little or no salt.

Fatty facts

The levels and type of fat are also crucial for health. While children under two need higher levels of fat, above this age you can slowly start to reduce it. For children over five, am to keep general fat levels low, at 3 g or less per 100 g.

Saturated fat, whether of animal or plant origin, should also be kept low. Steer clear of any product containing partially or fully hydrogenated fats, which act in a similar way to saturated fat in the body. Inferior quality refined oils are also best avoided. Omega-3, on the other hand, is a healthy and important fatty acid, so it's a good idea to buy products containing it.

Extract taken from Feeding Made Easy by Gina Ford (Vermilion) £12.99