I spend a significant amount of time seeing healthy young children whose parents are convinced that their child has an eating disorder

Any parent of a toddler knows that mealtimes can be a minefield.

But in this week's Scrubbing Up health column, child health specialist Su Laurent says some are attributing their offspring's dietary foibles to an eating disorder, rather than bad behaviour.

Some parents think that their baby has an inability to swallow solids, others think that their child will fade away unless they are offered the few foods which they like and some parents say that their child eats nothing at all, despite the fact that they are consuming a packet of "Wotsits" in front of me!

All three situations are examples of how powerful a weapon food is and how quickly children can gain the upper hand over their parents.

All three scenarios can be helped by a good health visitor, but sadly there are no longer enough health visitors to spend the time needed with first-time parents.

The difficulty I face is that parents often have a fixed idea that their child has a disorder and it can be very hard to convince them that, on the contrary, their child is very powerful and is getting away with eating exactly what they want!

It's often easier for a doting parent to believe that a child has a medical problem than a behavioural one.

My heart sinks when I hear stories of mealtimes taking hours, of children being force-fed and parents sneaking food into their child while they're watching TV so that they won't notice they are being fed.

Some parents surprise their toddlers by popping out from behind the sofa in an attempt to stuff a spoon full of food into their mouths.

Others accept that their child will only eat chips, chicken nuggets and chocolate cereal.

One mother told me with pride that since the last time I saw her seven-year-old in clinic he'd tried a new food: he was now happy to eat KFC chips in addition to McDonald's chips.

You can imagine the expression on my face!

These children are often overweight, and yet their parents live in fear of starving their child unless they are given exactly what they want to eat.

In these families food dominates, the parents have got themselves into a rut and can't see a way out.

'Don't give in?'

So how should these issues be tackled?

The basic principles are:

* Make eating fun
* Eat with your child whenever possible
* Stop any force-feeding
* Let him follow your example and feed himself, however messy he becomes
* Remember that a normal child will not allow himself to starve

Babies can eat finger foods from a very young age but parents are often fearful of the resultant mess and prefer to feed them off a spoon.

A baby who feels he's being force-fed has an amazing ability to clamp his jaw shut, turn his head away and even gag on food and refuse to swallow.

Offer your child a small amount of healthy food and clear the plate away after 15 minutes even if he's eaten nothing.

Don't make a big thing about it and resist all temptations to give him a snack before the next meal even if he's grumpy.

Limit milk to a pint a day, many poor eaters get most of their calories from milk. Encourage your child to drink water or very dilute fruit juice.

Reward your child for trying something new and don't punish him for refusing to try.

A very stubborn child may refuse to eat for two or three meals but eventually will have to give in unless he's being offered snacks between meals.

Of course, as a mother of three I confess that all of this can be easier said than done.

Remember the basic principles that food is a powerful weapon and your child won't fade away if he eats nothing for a day or two.

Another fifteen cases of swine flu were confirmed yesterday by the Health Protection Agency, bringing the UK total to 244. One of the cases was in Wal

One of the UK's leading flu experts has predicted that a pandemic of swine flu is likely to strike Britain in the autumn. Professor John Oxford, an expert on virology at Queen Mary School of Medicine, University of London, says that children going back to school, universities reopening and people going back to work after the summer break would give swine flu the "opportunity" that it needs to spread.

But Professor Oxford thinks that many cases are going undetected:

"Already, sporadic cases in the UK have been shown that are not linked with cases that have travelled. That does suggest that the virus is silently spreading around."

However, he said that people should behave as usual, as far as possible, if a pandemic strikes. "What we don't want is people stopping at home and not going to work, because then you have an economic problem on top of a pandemic," he said. "The best advice is to carry on as normal but to be sensible about it. "This includes a bit of social distancing and shielding people from coughs by coughing into the crux of your arm."

Professor Oxford said that in the next few months, global health officials will be keeping a close eye on what happens to the H1N1 swine flu virus in countries like Australia and South Africa. The southern hemisphere is entering its winter and the peak period for flu. On Friday, the World Health Organization reported that Australia has had 147 confirmed cases; Argentina has had 37; and none so far in South Africa.

What happens in the southern hemisphere in the coming months will be a good indicator of how the virus will behave in Europe and North America later this year. There would be particular concern if H1N1 mutated substantially to become a more virulent illness. Thankfully, there are no signs of that yet.

The Australian Science Media Centre is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to know what experts are thinking about the spread of the virus there. The Science Media Centre in London has lots of reliable specialist comments on flu and a host of other issues.