1. Fancy Sandwiches: Get out of the boring sandwich rut by making  fancy, creative sandwiches using an assortment of breads and cookie cutters. Find cookie cutters in a variety of shapes and sizes and use them to cut the bread for super cool sandwiches. Children will be intrigued by your creativity and will be more apt to finish their sandwich. Also try switching up the bread.  Plain white bread day to day can become mundane and uninteresting. There are a wide variety of breads to choose from that are made fresh at your local bakery to choose from like honey wheat, rye, asiago, tomato basil, pumpkin, focaccia, and ciabatta . Their unique flavors, colorful presentation, and textures can be appealing to young children.
2. Mini Pizzas: Mini pizzas are a great alternative to sandwiches and a healthy alternative to pizza.  Top whole wheat English muffins with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and a host of veggies like tomatoes, bell peppers, olives, or broccoli. Let children take turns choosing their own healthy toppings. Broil the mini pizzas in a toaster oven or under the oven’s broiler.
3. Whole Grain Crackers: Crackers are a great substitute for bread. You can take two large crackers like Wasa Hearty Rye Crisp bread and put sandwich fillings between them. As an alternative you can pack a lunch of whole grain crackers along with low fat cheese slices, sliced lean meats, and sliced veggies. Spread crackers with a variety of spreads like cream cheese, peanut butter, cottage cheese, whole fruit spread or mashed bananas.
4. Wraps or Roll Ups. Tortillas are great for making sandwiches because they are less likely to get soggy.  Wraps can be made with whole wheat tortillas. Add healthy combinations like lean cold cuts, grilled chicken and veggies and lowfat cheese. You can make rollups on a whole tortilla topped with all sorts of healthy fun toppings. Try lowfat cream cheese topped with veggie slices or dried fruits like raisins, apples, and apricots.  You can even make rollups out of your usual sandwich toppings like peanut butter and jelly.
5. Healthy Dips: Dips are a great way to provide a nutritious, deconstructed lunch.  There are a variety of healthy, great tasting dips like fruit and yogurt dip, hummus dip, bean dips, and avocado dip. Cut whole grain bread into strips or cut pita bread into triangles for dipping. Sliced fruit and veggies can also be used as dippers.

It is important to offer young children choices from a wide variety of foods in an assortment of colors and textures presented in small portions. Also remember one of the responsibilities you hold as part of your child care job is being a role model. Children learn good eating habits from their role models. When an adult models good eating habits in childcare centers, helps instill good lifelong eating habits in young children.

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Be careful or avoid the following types of hazardous foods for toddlers:

Large chunks of food: Foods for toddlers should be the size of a pea. Anything larger can become lodged in the child’s throat. Make dice large items like hot dogs, carrots, and celery. Soft cook and chop melons and apples. Mash bananas instead of slicing them. Quarter cherry tomatoes, grapes, and strawberries. Shred or chop meat and cheeses into very small pieces.

Peanut butter and other nut butters: Peanut butter causes a choking hazard because it gets stuck to the roof of the mouth and throat and can be hard to swallow. To serve peanut butter to toddlers, avoid serving it in large globs. Instead spread peanut butter thinly on toast or crackers.

Soft, sticky foods: Kids love gummy bears, gum drops, and marshmallows. However, these foods can easily get stuck in a toddler’s throat.

Small, hard foods: Hard, small candies like Skittles, nuts (almonds, peanuts, cashews, etc.), popcorn, raisins, seeds and dried fruit pose a huge choking hazard for small children.

Foods that commonly cause allergies: 4 out of 100 children have a food allergy, according to recent studies by the National Center for Health Statistics. The most common food allergies in young children are caused by cow’s milk, eggs, tree nuts (almonds, pecans, cashews, walnuts, etc.), soybeans, peanuts, and wheat. Be sure to ask parents for complete and thorough information about their child’s allergies including foods to avoid, cross-sensitivities, usual treatment and emergency numbers.

For good measure, avoid the foods on this list of worst foods for toddlers:

• Nuts
• Popcorn
• Chucks of cheese
• Large chunks of raw veggies
• Seeds
• Chewing gum
• Hard candy
• Dollops of peanut butter
• Sticky candy
• Grapes
• Hot dogs
• Large chunks of fruit

Children must always be supervised while eating meals and snacks. Potential child care workers: when applying for childcare jobs, be sure that that you have CPR and First Aid certifications. Child care business owners: Be sure that all staff is CPR and First Aid certified and that that each staff member’s certifications remain current.

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According to the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine research by the Children’s Hospital in Boston shows that at least 40 percent of American infants and toddlers aren’t getting enough vitamin D. 12 percent of the young children in the United States are deficient in vitamin D while 28 percent of infants and toddlers are at risk for vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D is a nutrient important for bone grown, bone strength and neuromusular health. Vitamin D helps toddlers’ immune system function and reduces inflammation in the body. It also helps reduce the risk of rickets (softening of bones in children which can lead to fractures and deformity). A deficiency in vitamin D will restrict calcium absorption. The amount of Vitamin D currently recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics is 400 IU (international units) daily.

As a daycare provider, how do you make sure the children in your care are receiving enough Vitamin D and that you are serving foods that are rich in vitamin D? The best source of Vitamin D is Milk. 8 ounces of vitamin D fortified milk contains 100 IU. However, be aware that the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines state that toddlers need no more than 16 ounces of milk per day (about 2 glasses). Too much milk can put your toddler at risk for iron-deficiency anemia and irritate your toddler’s gut.

Luckily, children in your daycare center can absorb vitamin D from sunlight or by eating vitamin D rich foods in addition to milk. There are a variety of vitamin D rich foods that help toddlers meet their Vitamin D requirements. Some examples of vitamin D rich foods to include in your child’s diet:

• Salmon
• Sardines
• Swiss cheese
• Tuna
• Yogurt
• Mackerel
• Beef liver
• Egg yolks
• Mushrooms
• Ice Cream
• Vitamin D -fortified cereal (check the label – Total or Cheerios for example)
• Cream Cheese

You may also try these tasty, toddler-friendly, vitamin D-rich recipes at home or in your child care center:

Pineapple-Orange Smoothie: Blend 8 ounces calcium and Vitamin D-fortified orange juice, pineapple chunks and low-fat vanilla yogurt in using a blender, hand blender, or food processor.

Teriyaki Salmon: Marinade salmon steaks in teriyaki sauce for 2 hours. Arrange salmon skin side down in a pan sprayed lightly with cooking spray. Sprinkle brown sugar over the salmon according to taste. Bake in an over at 375 for about 30 minutes or until salmon flakes with a fork.

What about Supplements? The American Academy of Pediatrics supports Vitamin D supplements for children. In your daycare business, is important to keep the lines of communication open to be sure you are meeting the needs of infants and toddlers in your care.

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You also have to check the guidelines and policies of the daycare center. Ask the capacity of the place and make sure that they are not overpopulated. Inquire about how they impose proper hygiene to the children in the center. It is best if they have encourage proper hygiene of the children by monitoring their cleanliness and reminding them to wash their after every activity. See to it that the cleanliness of the place is maintained and sanitized throughout the day. If all these requirements are followed then you can be assured that your kids are protected from germs and infections.

Aside from proper hygiene, proper diet also helps your children to be immune from infections. Food that contains phytonutrients such as fruits and vegetables help to fight germs. Thus, you have to check the kind of foods that are served in the childcare center. Make sure that they give your kids a healthy and balanced diet that strengthens their immune systems.

Make it also a habit that your children will have regular check-ups to their physicians. This will help in monitoring your child to make sure that they are healthy all the time. It is also a must that your kids are vaccinated to keep them protected from certain diseases.

Enough sleep and exercise is another way to keep your kids healthy. This will keep their immune system active and thus will keep them protected. Intake of plenty of water is also an effective way to keep healthy. This will keep you hydrated and healthy.

There are sure lots of ways to keep your children away from infections and always in good health. Whether they are in a childcare center or not, you should make sure that they follow the tips above. For sure, they will enjoy a healthy and active lifestyle ahead of them.

See: How to start a daycare center

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It is not easy for parents not to personally take care of their children as they need to go to work. If a parent entrusts his child off to daycare and doesn’t see what he’s eating or not eating then its okay. Certainly the daycare center is not going to let the child starve and they are going to have good food for him. Right?

Well, it is not always the case. Unfortunately, a daycare center’s nutritional food standard is dependent on its budget. Most daycare centers are poorly funded. Their budget goes primarily to paying the workers themselves. Then there is little left for food. In fact, many daycare centers have no budget for food at all.

So what can a parent do?
Firstly, you have to find out how much the center’s food budget is. They might not be able to give you an exact amount, as they may not even know this figure, but at least they can tell you what they can and can’t buy. This will give you an idea what part of the nutritional requirements of your child can they take care of and what part of it do you need to take care of yourself.

However, this will bring us to the next problem as some daycare centers do not allow food to be brought in from the outside. Many times, this can be because of certain health standard that they need to enforce. The daycare center can specify the foods that are allowed to be taken inside the center. This is why knowing what the center will be feeding your child is very important.

The parent needs to understand what exactly good nutrition is for their child. Unfortunately, not all parents can serve as a great roll models for good nutrition. Many people in the United States are either overweight or malnourished. That is why it is not likely to depend on these people to know what is good for their children. Depending on them for their child’s nutrition is like asking a foot doctor to disarm a nuclear warhead. This is not a good idea.

To better equip the parents with what are the good foods for their children, they need to consult a nutritionist. A nutritionist can design a diet based on the child’s needs. After this, the parent needs to find out which of the foods recommended by the nutritionist are available in the day care center. If only some, or none, then find out if they will let you bring over food to feed your child properly. If this is not allowed, then maybe you need to consider sending your child to other day care centers.

Why do you need to be very particular about nutrition? Simple. There are many studies that have proven that a child’s progress and health are the direct results of what they eat. So if you can’t be around to monitor what your child is eating, but still wants to make your child grow strong and healthy, then make sure that the daycare center is providing him with the food he needs to be healthy. If they don’t, then find yourself another center. Your child’s health depends on it.

Jell-O and Pudding in Daycare Center Meals

Gelatin or jello is a well-loved American household food. In fact, this is the most favored dessert in across the United States. Jell-O is the brand that has become popular for gelatin dessert. Jell-O comes in powder form or in ready-to eat packs. It is normally refrigerated before serving and eaten with a spoon.

Jell-O being supplied to daycare centers is a good idea because children just love to eat jello. Gelatin is the primary ingredients in many well known desserts; and comes in many delectable fruity flavors. Jell-O flavors that children love includes lime lemon, apple, orange, mango, grape, raspberry, strawberry, black cherry, cherry, peach, watermelon, pina colada, apricot, pineapple and many more fruits to mention. Jell-O can come in different colors and shapes too. There are red, yellow, green, blue, orange and white.

Pudding for childcare centers is also very popular. Pudding can be bought in bulk ready to serve 7 pounds of pudding which feeds up to 40 children per can. Children love to eat pudding that comes in vanilla, chocolate, banana, or tapioca flavor.

But why do kids love jell-o and pudding so much? It is because of their sweet and jelly taste and texture. If you are having trouble feeding them snacks, then jell-o is your best friend. Jell-O and pudding have been around for quite sometime yet still being considered as children’s favourite food. They can just eat tons of it and they never get satisfied, they just want to end up wanting more. So child care centers should prepare for a regular supply of jell-o because the kids and even the grown ups will want more once again to taste it.

You can also create jell-o pie out of Jell-O or various desserts with the puddings. There are many recipes that can be made from jell-o or pudding for your kids in the day care center. Use your imagination when cutting the jell-o into different shapes and sizes. They actually call this finger jell-o.

So if until now you enjoy Jell-O and pudding yourself and you have a day care center, always put a steady supply of Jell-O and pudding from all the rest of the day care supplies. You should always buy assorted flavors and offer them in different shapes and sizes to keep the children interested on them. So before you start thinking about other snacks that you will provide to your day care center kids get a jell-o and pudding. It just needs a very creative presentation and you can be sure that the kids will love it!

See: How to start a daycare business

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