Please can you tell me whether I should let my four year old little girl eat as and when she wants to or is it better to try and stick to three meals a day?

Small children need a lot of nutrients to fuel all their activity and growing needs. However, they can rarely manage to eat big meals so adopting a ‛little and often' approach can work really well as long as you make sure that the foods they are eating are healthy and nutritious.

A routine of breakfast, lunch and supper is important to help establish healthy eating habits but don't panic if your child only eats very small amounts. Simply check that their appetite is not being diminished by drinking too much milk (as is often the case for young toddlers) and avoid snacks that are high in fat, salt or sugar such as crisps, biscuits, cakes and sweets as these can fill up little tummies very quickly whilst providing few essential nutrients.

Instead, make sure you have plenty of healthy foods to hand such as fruit, vegetable crudités, slices of cheese, pitta breads spread with hummus, peanut butter or tahini paste, low sugar yogurts, semi dried apricots etc. These are all rich in important vitamins and minerals without being too filling.