Recently Ministry of Health updated ECE children's food guidelines for under fives. At Kuddles we believe in keeping our parents informed with the latest updates which come into effect - and the food related update is one area we thought we shed some light.
The new regulations on fruit and vegetables will mean that children under 3 being offered apples or carrots will need to be grated to ensure there is no risk of choking. For over 3s apples and carrots need to be cut into strips or small pieces.
Children must be seated when eating and not running around with food.
And, the list below shows food that has been banned by the ministry altogether;
whole nuts
large seeds (Pumpkin /Sunflower )
potato chips
hard rice crackers
dried fruit, ( apricot’s, pears, banana )
sausage or cheerios
popcorn
hard and chewy sweets or lollies
You can read the Ministry of Health guidelines on how to make food safer - for example, removing the casing from sausages and chopping it up into small pieces.
All of our carers are aware of these guidelines and follow them implicitly.
From more information direct from the Ministry check out these:
Now for fun! Getting a little creative can be a great way of making snacks and lunch times more enjoyable.
Trying cutting some shapes to their favorite sandwich.
Finely chopping, quartering or halving grapes, berries and cherry tomatoes and making them into shapes.
Its always fun baking some yummy cookies along with a bit of messy play.
Happy Healthy safe eating everyone!