Complementary feeding and obesity

Course details

This course is designed for midwives, health visitors, practice nurses and all other healthcare professionals advising pregnant women and/or working with infants, including in an early years setting.

The course content covers:

• Prevalence, consequences and risk factors for childhood obesity;
• Guidelines for infant feeding in the UK;
• Current infant feeding practices and nutrient intakes amongst infants and young children, including ethnic and socioeconomic differences;
• The timing and type of complementary feeding and risk of obesity;
• Complementary feeding practices in UK, Europe and elsewhere;
• The role of the healthcare professional in identification of at-risk groups and prevention of obesity.

Course structure

The course is made up of modules;  each module represents a step in learning. This allows the course to be completed at your own pace.

The first 3 modules are knowledge based and will help to develop your understanding of:

• infant feeding recommendations and early life risk factors for obesity;
• the relationship between risk of obesity and type of food, timing and feeding style in infant feeding;
• the role of the health visitor.

The last module is a skills based module that will look at some practice scenarios and encourage you to reflect on your practice. This will build on knowledge you will already have, what you have learnt on the course and explore your skills and techniques.

Course support

On each module we provide a brief outline of the unit content and a statement of what the learner should know or understand as a result of the learning. Within each module summaries and take home messages are provided to bring out the main learning.

A glossary and a list of the scientific references used in the course are available for you to download when you log into the course. You will also be able to find additional reading and the handbook.

If you have any questions about the course please contact the British Nutrition Foundation: postbox@nutrition.org.uk

Completion of course

On completion of the course content, and further to answering a few simple  test and evaluation questions, you can receive a certificate of participation for your CPD records

Your views are important to us and we welcome any feedback you would like to send. You can contact us by email postbox@nutrition.org.uk

Acknowledgement 

BNF is grateful for the financial support provided by Nestle Nutrition towards the production of this course. The content has been developed by BNF alone.