My daughter has been invited to three different parties this month all at various soft play/farm venues. Each time the kind parents have offered a choice of food for lunch. All good so far until you read what the choices are – sausage, chips and beans, chicken nuggets, chips and beans or fish fingers, chips and beans. My daughter will not entertain either nuggets or fish fingers so I am left with sausage. She won’t eat chips unless they are home-made sweet potato ones and beans are hit and miss. My question is does anyone have any tips on how I can take her some good quality food with me…

I have been reading about a salt called Himalayan salt. Although it’s much more expensive than normal salt (which they say has a different molecular structure), it apparently has great health benefits that warrant the extra cost. According to the people who sell it, it is virtually impossible to eat too much Himalayan salt as it is actually good for your body. Is this salt suitable for me and for my children? The fact is that all forms of table salt will have the same chemical structure of sodium chloride. Any product that contains sodium has the potential to cause increased blood pressure, and there is no way the structure…

How much milk is two tablespoons of yoghurt worth? And what about cheese? I am certain it’s a very silly question, but I can’t shake it out of my head. It’s not a silly question at all. While it’s not difficult to estimate food portions or suitable amounts for adults, it is trickier when you’re looking at baby-sized portions. As a rule of thumb, 210ml of milk (a medium-sized cup or about 7oz) is equivalent to 125g yoghurt (4.5oz, or the size of most small pots) or about 30g cheese (1oz, or a piece about the size of a matchbox). Thus, for smaller eaters, 100ml of milk (about 3.5oz) will…

My two-year-old son has a couple of eating issues, but not the sort where he doesn’t eat. He eats anything and everything in sight but he seems to have intolerances to certain foods. A while back, we gave him scrambled egg. It reappeared completely undigested about an hour later, and everywhere his sick went, his skin erupted in to what can only be described as looking as if he’d rolled in stinging nettles! So, we concluded he had an egg intolerance and left it at that. He hasn’t had egg in its pure form since – he can eat cake and stuff with egg in, but things like omelettes are…

I’ve read about vitamin drops for babies, though my child has never taken them. He’s older than one, but I wondered if it’s worthwhile starting them now. If so, how long should I give them to him? Yes, it is definitely still worthwhile starting the vitamin drops. They help babies and young children in the UK to get enough of three key vitamins: A, C and D. While vitamin A intake is lower than recommended in many UK children, and vitamin C plays a role in the absorption of iron (the lack of which is a factor in iron-deficiency anaemia in about 12% of UK toddlers), it’s vitamin D that…

Is my child eating too much salt? There is a lot of interest on the baby and toddler forums about salt in processed foods, and it really makes me happy to see the level of knowledge and concern mums have with their kids’ salt intake. I feel the same way, but it has occurred to me that, even as a dietician, I am not quite sure that my son Zander is within the official guidelines. He is four (beyond the toddler stage I know), but his diet hasn’t changed a lot in the last year or two. The reason I am more concerned about him than my older son is…