Birth to 5 years old

Child Development and Play

All children are unique and will reach development milestones at a time and rate that’s unique to them. This child development and play information identifies a range of child development stages for your information, but please follow your child.

Contact the health visitors for further information or to discuss child development further.

Sleep

The Lullaby Trust has a useful guide on safe sleeping recommendation to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (commonly called Cot Death). You can also find hints and tips on getting baby to sleep on the NHS website.

Immunisations

The NHS have lots of information regarding Immunisations, including immunisations at specific ages and FAQ's on each vaccine.

Weaning

Introducing your baby to solid foods, also referred to as weaning or complementary feeding, starts when your baby is around 6 months old. Your baby should be introduced to a varied diet, alongside their usual breast milk or first infant formula. Unicef and NHS Start for life have some excellent resources to assist you on your weaning journey.                     

Dental Health

Advice on dental health for you and your children and how to keep trips to the dentist to a minimum.

Healthy Eating

Healthy eating doesn’t have to be as difficult as you think. By making some small changes you can make a big difference. There are many websites that give useful information and advice about how to eat healthily.

Change4Life

The way we live in modern society means a lot of us, especially our kids, have fallen into unhelpful habits. This means all of us need to make small changes to eat well, move more, and live longer.Change4Life can help you to make these changes.

Healthy Eating

The NHS Live Well website offers a range of information to find out how to lose weight, healthy recipes, food safety and information about eating disorders.

Healthy Start

Are you pregnant or a new parent and carer? Find out if you qualify for vouchers, which you can swap for milk, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and infant formula milk.

Healthy packed lunches for Early Years

A healthy lunch every day will give your child the energy and nutrients they need to grow, develop and learn. Early years settings are improving the food they provide and how they encourage children to eat healthily and they need your support.

The key to a balanced, nutritious diet is variety.  The Children's Food Trust, Eat Better, Do Better provides a practical guide for parents. The below provides you with some ideas of what to include to ensure that your children's packed lunch is healthy, balanced nutritious.

A healthy balanced and nutritious packed lunch should include foods from the following four food groups:

Starchy food - bread, potatoes, rice, pasta

These foods provide carbohydrate to give your child energy for the afternoon

Fruit and Vegetables

These foods provide vitamins and minerals to help protect against illness.

Meat, fish, eggs, beans and other non-dairy sources of protein

These foods provide protein, iron and zinc to help your child grow.

Milk and dairy foods 

These foods are a good source of calcium, for strong bones and teeth.

Foods and drinks high in saturated fat, sugar (and/or salt)

Try to limit these types of food and drink. Too much salt and saturated fat can increase the risk of some illnesses in later life while too much sugar can damage children's teeth.

Toilet Training

Some children take to toilet training quickly, others take more time. Either way, it's common to have questions and face setbacks as your child learns this new skill.

2 year old review

The Two Year Old Review is a combination of the Health review your Health Visitor and Children’s Centre staff do and the 2 year Progress Check, carried out by your child’s key person if your child attends a day nursery, pre-school or childminder.

Active Play

It's so important to make time to play and at the same time be more active. So next time you have a spare moment, try one of the activities suggested in this section with your children and get your body moving.

Accident Prevention

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has information about preventing accidents in the home with household cleaning products and other causes.

Take Action Today Put Them Away Fact Sheet

Take Action Today, Put Them Away Checklist