My son used to come home from his nursery after lunch to announce that the Magic Roundabout's freshly-prepared food was much better than my cooking.

Now eating his lunch in Castlepark School, he continues to insist that my efforts cannot compare.

I'm delighted. Children who spend eight hours or more in day care get 70 per cent of their nutritional needs from the food offered by their nursery or crèche. A child's awareness and attitudes about foods will be largely formed by the childcare setting, which has a responsibility to make food a positive experience for children, says Dara Morgan, senior community dietician with the South West Area health board.

Article 26 of the childcare regulations demands that childcare providers offer "suitable, sufficient and nutritious food". By the end of this month, working guidelines for daycare settings will be introduced by the Department of Health.

Food and the process of eating it are crucial not just for children's long-term physical growth and brain development, but also for social skills and language development. Food is a learning tool for children - starting with learning to handle it, to processing the sensations of eating it and talking about it.

The menu is most important of all. "Children are not little adults," Morgan says. They have high energy requirements that cannot be met by a low-fat, high-fibre diet suitable for adults. To meet their needs, children should have as many as six eating sessions per day. That includes two to three meals and two to three snacks based on the "food pyramid".

Whole grains and bread are at the base of the pyramid, followed by fruit and vegetables, dairy products and meat. Treats like home-made cookies, cakes and crumbles (and the occasional chocolate biscuit) give children much-needed energy.