Feeding Healthy Futures

Feeding Healthy Futures is a healthy eating group education program for expectant or new parents, designed to support parents and their children achieve their best health over the child’s first 1000 days, and develop lifelong healthy eating habits.

Background

The Feeding Healthy Futures program is delivered in 3 stages- during pregnancy, when the child is approximately 4 months old, and when the child is about 1 year old. Each stage involves attending a weekly in-person group session for 3 weeks, lasting 60 minutes per session. These sessions are led by Accredited Practising Dietitians in familiar community venues, and each participant is provided with take-home information booklets, resource kits, and access to a private, moderated online community.

Facilitated by Accredited Practising Dietitians, Feeding Healthy Futures provides evidence-based information to help parents navigate their child’s food and nutrition needs during the three most crucial stages of their first 1000 days- pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood.

Outcomes

The Feeding Healthy Futures program was initiated in Canberra between 2022-2025, funded by the ACT Government under the ACT Health Promotion Grants Program. During this period, a total of 102 sessions were delivered to families in Canberra, supporting 248 families.

Key outcomes of the program found:

• Improved dietary intake among women during pregnancy, to meet the nutritional needs of their developing baby.
• 87% of participants were continuing to breastfeed their infants at approximately 4 months old, and breastfeeding had been continued by 86% of mothers when their babies reached 11 months old.
• Average age of introducing solids was 5.5 months, with 64% of participants introducing solids at the recommended 6 months of age.
• 80% of participant’s children were receiving daily exposure of each food group by the age of 12 months, with 76% of 1-year olds being regularly offered family foods.

Feeding Healthy Futures has shown that dietitian-led nutrition intervention in the first 1,000 days is well received and highly valued within the community, and is effective at generating beneficial behaviour change among parents.

Program resources

The Feeding Healthy Futures program is delivered in 3 stages- during pregnancy, when the child is approximately 4 months old, and when the child is about 1 year old. Each stage involves attending a weekly in-person group session for 3 weeks, lasting 60 minutes per session. These sessions are led by Accredited Practising Dietitians in familiar community venues, and each participant is provided with take-home information booklets, resource kits, and access to a private, moderated online community.

Stage one – nutrition in pregnancy

Starting in the second trimester, parents join a supportive peer group to receive practical strategies and nutrition information to support them through pregnancy and the post-partum period. Groups meet weekly for three weeks at selected libraries across the ACT for evening sessions.

For information provided during the pregnancy sessions, download the free booklet here.

Stage two – introducing solids

As their infants reach 3-5months old, parents re-join their groups to discuss common questions around starting solids. Information covered includes how, when, and what foods to introduce to babies, as well as hot topics like allergies and responsive feeding practices.

For information provided during the Introducing Solids sessions, download the free booklet here.

Stage three – transition to family food

As your children transition from infancy into early toddlerhood, families regroup for the final stage to talk all things food and feeding, building the foundation for lifelong positive relationships with food.

For information provided during the Transitioning to Family Foods sessions, download the free booklet here.

Want to learn more? Listen to our ABC Canberra radio interview with Executive Officer Leanne Elliston.

Feeding Healthy Futures- In Community

The Feeding Feeding Healthy Futures in Community is an individually tailored version of the Feeding Healthy Futures program, delivered in collaboration with existing community organisation who support vulnerable populations in the Canberra community.

This includes populations such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents, parents escaping domestic and family violence, new migrant and multicultural parents, teenage parents, and parents living with post-natal depression. For these programs additional resources have been created, including plain English flyers with simple, factual nutrition information for pregnancy, babies, and toddlers. For more information on this program, please contact us at info@actnss.org.

The Feeding Healthy Futures program was funded by the ACT Government under the ACT Health Promotion Grants Program from 2022 -2025. We are currently seeking funding opportunities to continue this program in the ACT.

Feeding Healthy Futures is supported by the ACT Government under the ACT Health Promotion Grants Program.