Healthy food for toddlers

Like most working parents, Sue and I sometimes find it difficult to find the time to make meaningful homecooked meals. We could out and about and Emily could intone hunger. It's always been quite handy and convenient to have a few baby ready meals at the "ready" just in case.

With most things baby and toddler related, you take it as read that the nutrition involved is geared to promoting the health and nutritional needs of growing children. Apparently, this is not always the case.

In a report on tonight's Panorama, the subject of baby and toddler grub, especially in the ready meal market, is discussed at great length. A lot of the discussion will apparently focus on daycare centres and the food they serve. Hopefully, with Emily at a private child minder, the food she receives is of a slightly higher nutritional value.

There's also discussion about the "nutritional traffic light" that appears on adult food to signal things like saturated fat, salt and calories. This type of nutritional info isn't required on children's food and stuff labelled as "children only" can sometimes contain things parents should be warned about, like increased sugar levels.

The secret in keeping our kids healthy is to make all meals at home from scratch, but this is never 100% possible. Hopefully watching Panorama tonight will steer me on the right path when we do need to supplement Emily's diet with ready made grub.

Panorama: What's Really in Our Kids' Food, BBC One, Monday, 25 January at 2030GMT.