Children's diets can be influenced by their parents

"Start healthy, stay healthy," focuses on nutrition from pregnancy through to childhood, looking at breastfeeding, weaning and food safety issues.

Organised by the Health Promotion Agency(HPA), it is the first of its kind to be held in Northern Ireland.

Dr Brian Gaffney of the HPA said good maternal and child nutrition was vital to improving the health of families.

"Making good choices, such as eating well during pregnancy, choosing to breastfeed and weaning from six months of age, all help to provide a good foundation for developing good eating habits in early childhood," he said.

"This conference is unique in that it deals with nutrition from pregnancy right through to childhood and looks at ways to help parents give their children the best nutritional start in life and to encourage them to start healthy and stay healthy."

The conference will look at food habits

The conference will be attended by over 200 health professionals, school teachers and academics.

Dr Andrew Hill, a chartered psychologist at Leeds University School of Medicine and former Chairman of the UK Association for the Study of Obesity, will address the conference.

He said: "Parents' own motivations and concerns about food are vital to understanding children's eating behaviour.

"A present or past eating disorder, for example, can spill over into ways that mothers interact with young children at meal times.

"Likewise, maternal shape and weight concerns have been associated with overly restrictive child-feeding practices, particularly with girls.

"Recognising that both parental and child weight issues can impact on parent-child interactions in relation to food and eating is necessary in the context of increasing obesity levels and ongoing efforts to tackle this."

He said the conference would result in parents getting help and advice.