Child healthy weight training 15/11/11
NHS Western Isles is taking proactive steps to promote the importance a healthy lifestyle in childhood to local families, by offering training to families with children aged between two and seven.
A dietitian from NHS Western Isles will be providing training to local families on a new child healthy weight programme. The new programme, SCOTTlite, runs over six weeks and promotes the importance of making changes as a family to develop a healthy lifestyle. It is not a group programme; one family sees the dietitian at a time which means that families benefit from individual support. There is also a small reward for the children who complete the entire programme.
NHS Western Isles nutrition manager Karen France said: “Eating habits learnt in childhood tend to stick with us for the rest of our lives. Most people have a good idea of what a healthy diet is, but it can be difficult to make sure young children get the right balance of foods help them to grow up to be a healthy weight; this is where the new programme is so important.”
She added: “If parents are concerned about their child’s weight, or if the results from health checks show that their child is outwith the healthy range, they can self refer to the dietetic service to receive advice and support (although SCOTTlite focuses on children over the healthy weight range we will also see children who are under this weight range).”