Healthy eating and mealtime practices:

All of our nursery settings provide a full menu which includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and rolling snacks, should your child need them. We work very hard with our catering suppliers to ensure that your child receives a balanced diet. We accommodate all diets and special requirements.
As part of our sign-up process, we capture your child’s individual dietary requirement. We recognise that your child’s requirements may be due to a medical condition, cultural preference or during weaning and ask that you notify us immediately if any requirements change, in writing, to ensure our records are kept up to date.
Whilst children are eating, they are encouraged to sit and enjoy their food and try new foods. We use snack and meal times as an opportunity to create conversation with their peer group and our colleagues. During meal times we have a colleague sitting and eating with the children to encourage good eating habits. Cultural differences in eating habits are respected and you will be informed of what your child has eaten either on collection or via our nursery software app.
Simply through repetition, helping children form lifelong habits. Through our routines we reduce the risk and spread of infection. Handwashing, nose wiping and frequent cleaning are just a few of our daily habits.
Throughout all care routines, our team wear suitable PPE.
As part of our sign up process your child’s allergies will be shared with us and we will ask for a care plan to be completed. We ensure that the team looking after your child are made aware of their allergies and severity and allergy information is displayed whilst your child is in care.
We ask that you inform us immediately of any allergy changes, in writing, to ensure our records are kept up to date.
Whilst we do not use nuts in any of our menus and we ask parents and our colleagues not to bring nuts, or nut products into any of our settings, many food are labelled with “may contain” and therefore whilst we cannot guarantee that our settings are completely free from specific allergens, we do ensure, through our policies, that those children with allergens do not come into contact with them. We ask that you keep us updated if your child develops or their reaction to an allergen change and you notify us of the severity of reaction to ensure we manage the risk accordingly.

As part of our sign up process your child’s allergies will be shared with us and we will ask for a care plan to be completed. We ensure that the team looking after your child are made aware of their allergies and severity and allergy information is displayed whilst your child is in care.
We ask that you inform us immediately of any allergy changes, in writing, to ensure our records are kept up to date.
Whilst we do not use nuts in any of our menus and we ask parents and our colleagues not to bring nuts, or nut products into any of our settings, many food are labelled with “may contain” and therefore whilst we cannot guarantee that our settings are completely free from specific allergens, we do ensure, through our policies, that those children with allergens do not come into contact with them. We ask that you keep us updated if your child develops or their reaction to an allergen change and you notify us of the severity of reaction to ensure we manage the risk accordingly.

Management of allergies:

Child is unwell or shows symptoms:

We will contact you and ask you to collect your child. Whilst we await your collection, your little one will be cared for, monitored and comforted by a first aider. If your child’s condition worsens such that it causes concern to the first aider then suitable medical treatment will be arranged in the form of a GP or ambulance and a colleague will escort your child and notify you immediately.
Yes, to avoid the spread of infection for the welfare of all children and our colleagues. If your child feeling unwell or showing signs of an illness, we ask that you keep them at home. This includes but not limited to has a temperature, diarrhoea and, or vomiting, a rash, or conjunctivitis. These symptoms can all be signs of infectious illnesses.
If your child has a case of vomiting and diarrhoea, we adhere to the strict 48 hour exclusion period, outlined by Public Health England.
If your child has an infectious illness such as chicken pox, mumps, measles, they cannot attend even if they feel well due to the risk to other babies and pregnant mothers.
If your child has a rash or is suffering from a non-specific virus, they will not be accepted into care without first having received medical advice.
We reserve the right to refuse admission to your child temporarily on the grounds of ill health if it is likely to cause possible harm to your child or other children without discriminating against your child’s rights.
We use the Infection Control in Schools and Other Childcare Settings document from Public Health England, Public Health Wales and NHS Health Scotland for reference.

Prescribed and non-prescribed medication:

In our full day care settings we will give medication to a child if they have a long-term medical condition, or if they are completing prescribed medication but are well in themselves.
With all medication the first dose must have been administered at home at least 24 hours before entering care.
Our setting manager will provide you with a medication form and take you through our procedure on accepting, administering and storing your child’s medication.
If your child requires lifesaving medication please speak to our setting manager, so we can fully understand your child’s condition and who will take you through the steps we undertake before accepting your child into care.
When dealing with medication of any kind, strict guidelines will be followed and only those trained in First Aid will administer medications. All medication must be provided in the original packaging and must be prescribe to the child in question. Please note that should your child be prescribed an inhaler and spacer pump, both will be required to be left at every visit. We also follow NHS guidelines with regards to the expiry dates of epi-pens.
In our nursery settings we would administer medication to relieve a fever above 38˚C as a febrile convulsion is more likely in a child under 5 years.
You would be contacted before the medication is given and we would ask that you collect your child from the setting as soon as possible

Health and Nutrition