IN the cosy world I inhabit, parents mostly face two issues concerning children and food.

Half of the mums I know report that their toddlers or preschoolers eat them out of house and home.

The other half tear their hair out because their kids are fussy eaters and reject almost everything put in front of them.

My son can easily eat his own bodyweight in food but he does like to live by some odd rules. So cheese is a favourite as long as it’s not ‘orange’ cheese. Cake is nice but only if the icing has been removed. And he will eat raw peppers but refuses point blank to even try them once cooked.

Whether a child has the appetite of a lion or a mouse, you can usually guarantee that sat next to them at the dinner table will be a parent fraught with worry.

Are they eating enough? Too much? The right mixture?

So it is shocking to hear from a children’s charity that as many as one million children in this country don’t know where their next meal is coming from.

Shocking, but not totally unexpected.

I have heard before from teachers whose schools provide breakfast for some pupils because otherwise they would not have any.

They do it because they know a hungry child would also be tired, grumpy and totally unable to participate in lessons.

The latest figures published by Kids Company has partly blamed the problem on ‘chaotic parenting’. That appears to translate as parents who spend money on booze or drugs rather than on food for their children.

Clearly that is incredibly sad.

But perhaps more shocking was that the problem was equally blamed on the fact there are more families living under the breadline today.

These are responsible parents who cannot manage to provide food for their little ones.

It is often said that statistics conceal as much as they reveal.

So it is worth remembering that while the number of children going hungry will inevitably be the headline grabber – it will not show the full picture.

Responsible parents will undoubtedly put their kids first and go as hungry, if not more so, than their offspring.

It’s a sobering thought about the state of our economy – and one that puts most parents’ gripes about their fussy eaters into perspective.