For Parents Well Being
Well Being
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This guide is to give you information on how we promote a healthy lifestyle for your child whilst at the nursery.
This guide will cover:
Feeding your child better
Stop the Rot
Change for Life
Feeding your child better.
Cherry Childcare is committed to providing good, healthy nutritious meals for children in our care.
Our philosophy is Feed Me Better
F – is for Food quality, cooking with fresh ingredients, knowing how the food should taste, cooking with love.
M – is for Must haves, each child must have protein, carbohydrate and vegetables on their plate.
B – is for Belief that you are making a difference.
Our objectives are:
• To improve the quality of our menus and making them interesting to children so they will enjoy their food.
• To provide freshly prepared food that is both tasty and nutritious.
• To provide a consistent quality of meals.
• To promote well balanced meals that encourages a healthier diet for children.
To achieve this we…
• Ensure each of our weekly menus provide a balance of protein foods, featuring a Pork, Lamb, Poultry, Fish and Vegetarian item.
• Rotate menus on a four weekly basis to ensure a variety of meals.
• Every day we serve a minimum of two vegetables with at least one being a fresh seasonal vegetable. Note – we do not use canned vegetables.
• Children have five servings of fresh fruit and vegetables daily. Fruit is offered during morning and afternoon snack.
• Our menus are analysed for nutritional content by a program developed by the Caroline Walker Trust.
• We only serve fish products containing 100% fish.
• Our sausages contain a minimum of 60% pork.
• We do not serve burgers, chips or reconstituted chicken products.
• Children are provided with whole milk during morning break and water in the afternoon.
• Drinking water is provided throughout the day.
Why is this so important?
A healthy, varied diet provides all the nutrients for healthy growth and established good eating habits. We encourage our staff to eat with the children so they can see us enjoying the meals then the children are more likely to enjoy them.
Menus can be obtained from the Nursery Office.
Stop the Rot
At the nursery we promote good oral health by minimising the amount of sugar children eat and drink, promoting healthy snack choices and cleaning teeth after meals.
To “smile like a crocodile” there are 3 promises:
1. Sack the Sugar – check the labels on food and keep the ones containing sugar to an absolute minimum.
2. Beat the sweets – avoid sweets, toffees and chocolates as far as possible.
3. Let’s get brushing – make sure children understand the importance of brushing twice a day for 2 minutes.
Cherry Childcare is a registered provider with the “Stop the Rot” campaign and our objective is to make our nurseries tooth friendly zones.
Change for Life
The moto of Change for Life is eat well, move more, live longer.
Change for Life is a campaign launched by the NHS to promote healthier lifestyles. The “Top Tips for Top Kids” are:
1. Reduce childrens consumption of sugar which is the main cause of tooth decay and increases the risk of diabetes and heart disease.
2. Serving appropriate portion sizes to reduce eating to excess.
3. Balanced diet ensuring children are getting the main nutrients.
4. Promoting healthy snacks and in doing so reduce fat, sugar and salt intake.
5. Increased consumption of fruit and vegetables using the 5 a day guide.
6. Increased awareness of foods which increase fat intake.
7. Get active. Promoting at least 60 minutes of active time per day.
8. Up and about – move about to burn off energy.
In addition to outdoor play as part of the standard daily routine at Cherry Childcare we also promote healthy lifestyles through a number of specific physical activities including:
Wake Up, Shake Up
– An aerobic dance which takes place at 9.15 a.m. and 1.15 p.m. every day to a variety of upbeat songs.
Football Fridays
– Every Friday morning for our Pre-school children. Football Friday routines cover warm up exercises and basic ball skills as well as being a lot of fun! We also encourage children to wear their team shirts to add to the occasion.
