Awarded to: Health VisitorsThe Children's Food Awards
There are lots of places for parents to get good information on how to feed their children fresh, tasty and nutritious foods. Parents reported that cookery books and cookery shows on TV are an important source of ideas - offering plenty of inspiration for providing tasty and nutritious food from fresh ingredients. Runners-up in this category were the books The Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner by Annabel Karmel and The Food Our Children Eat by Joanna Blythman. However, parents said that the most useful information on food and health had come from their Health Visitors. Young parents, especially, said that advice from health visitors was the first time they had received practical tips on feeding their children during the all-important early years of life. Health visitors were praised for providing advice based on practical experience and good common sense, helping parents gain the confidence to breastfeed, and to bring up their children on healthy foods. Director of the Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association (CPHVA), Mark Jones applauded the fact that health visitors as a group had won this year's Friendly Food Facts award from the Parents Jury. He said: "I think that it is very good news that health visitors have been recognised as providing excellent advice on healthy eating to children, especially as the vote of confidence has come from that hardest jury of all to please - parents." "This is a tribute to the important public health advice, that is often unsung, that health visitors provide to families and communities every day. We live in a time when it is vitally important that children start their lives by eating a regular, nutritionally balanced diet and health visitors are definitely playing their part in this process." "It is clear that health visitors don't just plonk down a set of leaflets and leave, but work pro-actively with parents over a period of time to find the optimum way forward for the children involved." "The fact that no one health visitor is singled out is very significant. It is obvious that the efforts of hundreds, if not thousands, of health visitors have been noted by parents across the UK and this has been passed back to give this tremendous result to the whole profession. The profession is proud and honoured to receive this award." Extra informationMany new parents say that the prospect of feeding their children healthily is quite daunting. With the loss of cooking facilities in schools, and the widespread availability of ready-made meals and snacks full of fats and sugars, many young parents don't have the confidence or understanding of how to prepare a tasty and nutritious meal from fresh ingredients. Parents also reported that they are sometimes confused by the many conflicting messages they receive about what counts as good food for children. That's why the advice they receive from health professionals such as health visitors has such an important role to play in helping parents gain the information and inspiration to ensure that their children are eating a healthy and balanced diet. Health Visitors are all qualified nurses (some midwives), who have undertaken specialist training in health promotion and illness prevention. Health visitors are concerned with the health of the whole community, and focus especially on advising and helping families with children, pregnant women and elderly people. Often they work with hospitals or health promotion clinics, and they visit new parents in their homes to make sure that children get the best start possible start in life. Health Visitors and School Nurses often work together on joint projects, such as promoting cooking skills and good nutritional advice to the school age population. CPHVA (Community Practitioners and Health Visitors Association) is the professional body that represents health visitors, and about half of school nurses. CPHVA says that more financial support is needed from government, to ensure that all children benefit from their expert support (estimated at an extra £9 million). Members of the Parents Jury said they were very grateful for the good advice they had received from Health Visitors, and were pleased to nominate them for the Friendly Food Facts award. Find out moreFor advice on many
aspects of child health, visit www.healthvisiting.org The Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association is the UK professional body that represents registered nurses and health visitors who work in a primary or community health setting. For more information, see: www.amicus-cphva.org The Children's Food Awards 2002 |
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