This week is Nutrition & Hydration Week – a celebration to promote and celebrate improvements in hydration and nutrition from a local to global level.  Having taken place every week since 2012, the week aims to bring people together in a fun, focussed and energetic way to educate about the value of food and drink in our wellbeing. For parents, giving our kids a well-balanced meal can be a struggle.  We have the challenges of time constraints, not all being in the house at the same time for a family meal, and then not to mention the dreaded fussy eaters! To celebrate this week, we want you to all get talking about your food.  If you do get chance, sit with your little ones, whatever their age and talk about the food on their plates. Try describing the fruits they eat using colours, shapes and words to describe the taste and why it is good (or not so good!) for them.  You could even try a game such as “The Rainbow Game”… As best as you can, prepare a plate of fruit/vegetables with food which represents the different colours of the rainbow.  Using the classic Rainbow Rhyme, you can point to each food so they learn about healthy food benefits, shapes and colours at the same time. Red – cherry tomatoes, strawberries.   Yellow – banana, sweetcorn Pink – raspberries, watermelon Green – broccoli, grapes, apple, pear, cucumber Purple – purple potato, aubergine, red cabbage Orange – carrots, sweet potato, oranges Blue – blueberries of course! With older ones, you can just adapt this to include more descriptive words, facts and figures.  It’s really good to talk with older kids about the health benefits of the variety of food on their plate, and even where it has come rom. You know your child and you can adapt it to whatever their age.  You never know, you might learn something yourself at the dinner table! Let’s not forget hydration….as we are still in the throws of chilly days, our little ones may not show us they are as thirsty as they would when the hot weather arrives.  It is therefore really important to make sure they always have a drink ready for when they wake up, or when you are out and about. Keep drinks as water based as possible and avoid sugary drinks. Just offer it to them regularly, and they will take it when they need it. Whatever you do this week, let’s do our bit to educate and celebrate the health benefits of food and drink by talking all about it. https://nutritionandhydrationweek.co.uk #NutritionHydration #NHWeek2019 @NHWeek