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Healthy Lifestyles
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- 0-19 Sheffield Service – School Nursing and Vaccination Team
- Healthy Lifestyles
Everyone should have at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day. An adult portion of fruit or vegetables is 80g. Children and adults should also drink 6-8 glasses of water each day (around 1.2 to 1.5 litres in total). Fruit and vegetables are a good source of vitamins and minerals and there are significant health benefits to those who eat their five a day.
5 to 18 year olds are advised to participate in 60 minutes of moderate to rigorous activity daily. This does not have to be carried out all at once and remember activities such as school PE and playground games all count.
School Nurses can help to support a healthy lifestyle by offering advice around diet, fussy eating, physical activity, and the use of vitamin D to keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy.
Additionally, School Nurses can signpost to other services that can support families around health lifestyles.
Useful links
- Better Health – has lots of tips to help with a healthy life style, including small diet swaps to improve health.
- British Dietetic Association (BDA) resources – Healthy eating for children, Food and mood, Diet, behaviour and learning for children.
- Live Lighter – is a free and inclusive weight management support service. Families can join a 12 week programme of support.
- Move More – has tips for the whole family on how to be more active.
- NHS Healthier Families – has lots of information about eating well, healthy food swaps and fun activities.
- NHS vitamin D – includes advice around the use of Vitamin D.
- Sheffield Is Sweet Enough – has information on healthy eating and simple ways to reduce sugar intake.
- The Eatwell Guide – shows how much of what we eat overall should come from each food group to achieve a healthy, balanced diet.
Fussy eating
Fussy eating in young children is very common. Keep offering a variety of foods to children as it may take lots of attempts before your child will accept new food. Try and keep mealtimes enjoyable and eat with your child whenever you can as this is a great way for your child to eat and learn to enjoy new foods. If you are concerned about fussy eating please visit the useful link below or contact the School Nursing team.
Useful links
School meals
School meals are a great way to provide children with a healthy lunchtime meal. There are food standards in place to help children develop healthy eating habits and to provide them with the nutrition and energy to get the most from their day at school. Children may be more willing to try new foods in school.
Many parents and carers worry about if their child will eat enough at lunchtime when they start school. If you are worried that your child may not eat at lunchtime speak to their class teacher. Remember school meals are available to all children in state-funded schools free of charge in FS2 (Reception), Year 1 and Year 2. Families with older children may also be eligible for free school meals. However, if you wish to send your child with a packed lunch from home there are lots of ideas for healthy packed lunches in the useful links below.
Quick links