Nottingham CityCare's Targeted Healthy Lifestyle Team supports mum and child to improve their diet and lose weight

Food and nutrition advice and support from Nottingham CityCare for a mother with an eighteen-month-old child has helped the family learn about healthy and unhealthy food choices and changed the way they think about food.

Nottingham CityCare’s Targeted Healthy Lifestyle team is supporting Healthy Eating Week, which begins today (10 June) and is encouraging everyone to adopt healthier diets, be more active and reduce food waste.

The team supported Charmaine and her children by offering nutrition and healthy eating sessions, which helped the family to lose more than a stone (6.3kg) in weight in the process.

Sessions offered nutritional information, food-related games for the children, and support for the whole family.

Charmaine, a permanent makeup artist based in Nottingham and her 18-month-old son were referred for sessions with the Targeted Healthy Lifestyle team after taking her son for growth measurement checkups. The results showed her 18-month-old had grown rapidly in a short amount of time.

The new scheme provided by the Targeted Healthy Lifestyle team was offered to the mum and child as an alternative method for the family to learn about healthy eating, food contents and portion sizes.

The team visited the family’s home in Wilford, Nottingham, to host sessions on topics such as salt quantities in food, sugars, and helping them to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy foods.

The team also spent time playing food-related games, with both her eighteen-month-old and three-year-old joining in.

Not only did the children learn from the sessions, but mum Charmaine says it completely changed the way she thought about food, the contents of food she prepared, and the portion sizes of meals she cooks for her family.

“I thought I knew a lot about food, but the sessions completely changed my perception,” said Charmaine.

“It changed the way I shop for food, as well as the view I had on certain foods that I thought were good for us.”

“While the sessions were for my 18-month-old, they impacted the whole family and all the foods we now eat. My three-year-old also joined in with the games, and now talks about what is a healthy food"

Charmaine highlighted one member of the team, Public Health Practitioner Naomi Wright, thanking her for fantastic levels of support.

“Naomi was brilliant, so friendly with the children and answered all our questions.”

Six months after the final sessions with the Targeted Healthy Lifestyle team, Charmaine has lost weight and her youngest child now has healthier growth patterns thanks to the advice, support and education provided by the team.

“I can’t thank the team enough. My son is now growing as expected, and in the past six months I have lost a stone,” said Charmaine

“I would recommend the sessions to others. The more we know about healthy eating the better.”

Nottingham CityCare Chief Executive Lou Bainbridge praised the team for their work and thanked Charmaine for her feedback.

“It’s great to hear about the impact the Targeted Health Lifestyle team is having on the lives of families in Nottingham.

“Charmaine and her family are a great example of how we can make a real difference to people’s lives.

“Eating well and exercising are so important, particularly in the early years, and can help people avoid serious and long-term illnesses and conditions in later life.”

The Targeted Healthy Lifestyle Service is a Nottingham CityCare Partnership team of staff working with children and families who live in Nottingham city.

The team works in the community in partnership with families, offering individualised programmes of care, support, advice and education.

The service is available for children and families from birth up to the child’s fourth birthday.

If you would like to receive similar support visit: www.nottinghamcitycare.nhs.uk/our-services/targeted-healthy-lifestyle-pilot