Nutrition

It is crucial for babies to start off eating good, wholesome food, packed full of nutrients that are necessary for their health and development, so the majority of our meals used to be home cooked using the best quality ingredients and organic where possible; but with the opening of the second day nursery, Beverley now buys in top quality frozen meals from COOK, that are microwaveable. More information, including nutritional information is available on all of these meals from their shops, located in Windsor and maidenhead, or from their website www.cookfood.net

Nutrition Research has shown that if children are given varied and nutritious meals once weaned, they have a reduced chance of becoming fussy eaters later on and are more likely to try different foods.

We aim to maintain balanced, sensible meals, avoiding sugary and salty foods so that there is less chance that the children will crave them, or develop a sweet tooth, later on.

Attached is a sample menu plan:-

Wk 1	*AM Snack*	*Lunch*	*PM Snack*	*Tea*
Mon	Milk Bread sticks	Chicken and mash pie and vegetables Fromage Frais	Fresh fruit	Sandwiches and raw vegs Fruit
Tues	Milk Grapes	Shepherds Pie, cabbage, bacon and pine nuts Fruit cake	Fresh fruit	Vegetable and chick pea tagine with plain basmati rice Fromage frais
Wed	Milk Sultanas	Macaroni cheese Fruit trifle	Fresh fruit	Ham, cheese & sweetcorn crumpets Fromage frais
Thur	Milk Plain biscuit	Sausage and red onion casserole with creamy mash Banana custard	Fresh fruit	Lamb casserole with minted new potatoes and vegetables Fromage frais
Fri	Milk Oatcakes	Cod tagine with rice and oven roasted vegetables Rice pudding	Fresh fruit	Organic vegetable soup bread and butter Fromage frais

Parents are asked to provide for all of their childs' nutritional needs until they reach a year old. When the children are about 9-10 months old, and start to notice what the older children are eating we find that they show an interest in trying some of their food. So we offer them tastes of finger foods, gradually getting the babies used to the foods that we eat from the menu plans.

Food intolerances, allergies and cultural dietary needs will be catered for and parents wishes respected.

Nutrition Our meals also include a range of dishes from around the world so that the children can enjoy new tastes, flavours and textures. We encourage the children to be independent and feed themselves as soon as they can. Breakfasts can be included, if required and will be from a selection of cereals or toast.

To encourage healthy eating habits from a very young age, we aim to meet or exceed the governments' recommended guidelines of eating at least 5 portions of fruit & vegetables every day

Nutrition A fish dish will be served at least once a week. On sunny days, we usually eat our fruit outdoors.

We never serve fizzy, sugary drinks, only water or milk.

Nutrition We include foods from around the world, such as Cantonese oyster chicken, Moroccan spiced lamb tagine or Chicken Korma as well as several Italian pasta dishes.

Nutrition Every child has the chance to celebrate their birthday at nursery, in accordance with parental permission; by having a small cake with the appropriate number of lit candles to blow out. This makes them feel special and everyone shares in the cake as a treat for dessert.