Professor Alan Lucas, from University College London's Institute of Child Health claims that doctors are not given enough training in child nutrition which can be vital to good health in adulthood.
The professor said the lack of medical training in paediatric nutrition was a serious problem. He suggested that childhood nutrition now needed to be developed as an independent area of practice.
Research has shown that how babies are fed in the early months of life can influence their risk of heart disease later on.
Professor Lucas said that "slow grown" babies - infants who are fed to gain weight gradually - appeared to have lower risks of heart disease and diabetes in later life and that almost every sick baby in neonatal intensive care had crucial nutritional problems”.