Parents Guidance for Consumables
At Footsteps day nursery and preschools our aim is to positively promote the health and wellbeing of every child.
If you have chosen to opt out of the nursery consumable charge the following policy applies to all items supplied from home.
Essential consumables for care routines
To be able to support the care routines of your child and meet their individual needs, you are required to provide the following items.
- Nappies
- Nappy creams – labelled with full name and date of opening
- Wet wipes – labelled with full name
- Nappy Sacks
- All year-round sun cream – labelled with full name and date of opening.
These items must be brought to nursery every day that your child is accessing a funded only place. We do not have the capacity to store any items at nursery therefore they must be packed safely in your child’s nursery bag and clearly labelled with their full name.
Keeping your child safe and healthy
Some creams and nappies may contain ingredients that are unsafe for your child or another child with an air borne allergy e.g. almond oil. To aid our parents in making decisions on which brands to pack we have created an approved list of items that are permitted at our nurseries. This list, however, is not exhaustive, and should you wish to provide a product not listed for your child the following process is required:
- Product details provided to your Nursery Manager
Product Details – product full title and manufacturers full name
- Nursery Manager will pass details to Footsteps Area Managers.
Your Nursery Manager will inform you of the date sent
- You will receive a response within 7 days with either:
Confirmation product has been approved and added to the approved product list
OR
Provide reason for not including requested product on the approved list.
When entering Footsteps, parent/carers must remove any creams and wipes from their child’s bag and hand to a nursery colleague or place in the designated box.
It is the responsibility of parent/carers to check that any creams are within their date of expiry, noting date of opening, as well as ensuring that there is enough cream to keep your child safe and healthy throughout the day.
For sun protection “instant” or “one use” creams can be used provided they meet the SPF criteria and following the packaging guidelines. Children should wear at least SPF30 sun cream that also provides UVA protection.
Parents Guidance for Consumables
Monitoring
It is the parents/carers responsibility to ensure that their child arrives at nursery with all the essential items to meet their child’s individual care routines; this will enable nursery colleagues to keep children safe and healthy whilst in their care.
If it is observed on arrival that your child does not have a nursery bag containing the essential items, you will not be able to leave your child until such items are provided. If during the day your child runs out of, or is running low on any essential items, a nursery colleague will contact you and request that these items are provided without delay. Alternatively, we have the right to request that a child is collected from nursery.
Footsteps recognises our moral and statutory responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of the children. Where there is a persistent failure to meet a child’s basic needs, a record of this will be made at nursery. Parents/carers will also be invited to attend a meeting to check in and discuss further. This could result in funded only sessions being retracted if parents/carers regularly fail to provide essential items.
Things to consider:
- To ensure your child’s comfort throughout the day please pack the right number of nappies for what is typically needed as well as one or two extras just in case.
- We advise that you check and replenish your child’s nursery bag the day prior to attending nursery, this will ensure you are fully prepared, your child’s outcomes are not impacted as well as avoid any unnecessary interruptions to your day.
- Remember that these items are only needed for funded days that your child attends (unless due to allergies, intolerances or preferences you usually provide items such as sun cream), therefore nursery bags should not contain any essential items other than spare clothing, hats, scarves, gloves, and comforters on all other days. Our nursery colleagues will not have the capacity to check bags daily and remove any items that may be accessible to children.
Extra curriculum activities
Extra curriculum activities are not included in the standard government funded sessions, such as our internal programme Tapestry, and updates on Facebook pages. Furthermore, any other external teachers and outings are not included.
Parents will also need to provide items for extra curriculum activities a list is below:
Gardening:
- Gloves
- Child size spade
- Child size fork
- Garden pots
- Soil and compost
- Seeds a variety flowers and fruit and veg
- Canes
- Watering can large and small.
Cooking:
- Plain floor
- Self raising floor
- Eggs
- Caster sugar
- Icing sugar/ icing pens
- Food colouring
- Food flavouring
- Baking tray and tin.
- Sandwich bags
- Tin foil/cling film
Footsteps may ask for specific items the week before a cooking activity like cheese, as storage is limited and use by dates may pass as you will need to bring in the un opened items above each term.
Parents Guidance for Consumables
Approved Product List
Nappies
- Huggies
- Pura Nappies
- Pampers Baby Dry
- Fred & Flo
- ASDA own brand
- Eco-nappy
- Mamia
- Lidl Lupilu
Nappy Wipes
- Huggies Pure Wipes
- Conti Supersoft Dry Wipes
- Pampers Sensitive Baby Wipes
- Kinder by Nature Plastic Free Wipes
- Pura Wipes
- Water Wipes
- Little Heroes Sensitive Biodegradable Wipes
- Fred & Flo
- Mumma Bear
- Mamia
- Lidl Lupilu Wipes
Nappy Creams
- Sudocrem
- Metanium
- Metanium Everyday Barrier Ointment
- Vaseline petroleum jelly
- Child’s Farm
- Organic Baby Balm
- Balmond’s Skin Salvation
- Aproderm
- Zeroderma
- Ceradan
- Eucerin
- Epiderma
- Aveeno
- Drapolene
- Epimax
- Aquamax
- Doublebase flare relief
- QV intensive ointment
- Zerobase
- Dermol
- Dr LPP
- BFF Balm
- Mustela
- Sudosalve
Sun Cream
- Stokoderm Sun Protect 50 PURE
- Child’s Farm
- Super Drug – Solait
- Garnier
- Boots – Soltan
- Nivea – 50 Sun Block for Kids
- La Roche-Posay
Supermarket Sun Creams:
- Tesco Soleil
- Morrisons
- ASDA
- Sainsbury’s
- M&S
- Aldi (Lacura)
Parents Guidance for Consumables
Restricted Product List
Nappy Creams
- Bepanthen – Contains a nut derived ingredient; the product contains Prunus amygdalus oil (sweet almond oil). Manufacturer was contacted and stated, “Any allergy-causing proteins of almond should have been removed during the ingredient refining process; however, it is not possible to guarantee this, and we are therefore unable to recommend that the product is suitable for those with a nut allergy.”
Parents Guidance for Providing Packed Meals
To support healthy growth and development, children need a well-balanced, nutritious diet. Establishing good eating habits in early childhood lays the foundation for lifelong health. However, there is growing concern that many children are consuming excessive amounts of fat, sugar and salt, and not enough fibre, fruits, and vegetables.
At Footsteps our aim is to positively promote the health and wellbeing of every child. We aim to support your child to foster a healthy attitude to food and work with you to ensure your child benefits from a balanced diet. Your child requires a balanced diet that includes daily intake of the following food groups.
- Carbohydrates
- Fruit and vegetables
- Protein
- Dairy
- Good fats (that are low in sugar, salt, and excess fat)
At Footsteps we require your child’s packed meals to be based on the NHS guidance ‘Healthier Families’ and for children over the age of two, the NHS ‘Eat Well’ Guide. This will ensure that your packed meals are in line with our ‘Food and Nutrition’ Policy.
Therefore, your child’s food bag for meals provided for both lunch and Snacks are required to contain:
Bread, Potatoes, Pasta – these starchy foods are a healthy source of energy. Packed meals should include 2 or more portions.
Fruit and Vegetables – these foods provide vitamins, minerals, and fibre. Packed meals should include at least 1 portion of fruit and 1 portion of vegetables / salad, or more.
Milk and Dairy foods – these foods provide calcium for healthy bones and teeth. Packed meals should include 1 portion at lunch.
Meat, Fish, Eggs, Beans, Pulses – these foods provide protein for growth. Packed meals should include 1 portion of these foods.
Drinks should be plain water. All children will also receive a portion of cow’s milk daily. For children that attend a funded only morning, the nursery will provide a portion of milk to accompany any cereal provided for their packed breakfast if required. Where a milk alternative is required due to preference, intolerance or allergy, parents will be required to bring this into nursery.
Allergens and Child Safety
Footsteps must ensure children are not exposed to potentially life-threatening allergens or food that could pose a choking risk. Packed meals MUST NOT contain the following:
- Nuts or nut products.
- Fizzy / sugary drinks in cartons, bottles, or cans
- Chocolate-coated products / sweets / confectionary
- Crisps
- Chocolate or sweet spreads as fillings for sandwiches
- Sugared / toffee and salted popcorn.
Parents Guidance for Providing Packed Meals
- Any of the prohibited food items (as advised by the individual nursery)
Due to the complexities in ensuring the correct temperatures of food, Footsteps are not permitting hot foods or food that requires reheating. Footsteps do not have the capacity to reheat food in nursery.
Choking can happen with hard foods, bones and small round uncut items that can easily get stuck in the throat. It is of great importance that you ensure that the risk from these is minimised where it cannot be eliminated. We ask that whole uncut round foods such as grapes, cherries, blueberries, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, olives etc are cut up to prevent a choking risk.
Where foods provided do not meet the above criteria, the nursery may either:
- Remove the food from the packed meals and call parents to provide an alternative.
- Allow the food to be given on that one occasion after being made safe, with guidance provided for parents on the criteria set. Please note, the nursery cannot offer substitutions to replace food not being given.
In a case where a child presents with an identified food avoidant/ARFID, which limits access to a nutritionally balanced diet, please refer to your Nursery Manager for support and advice.
Food safety
As fridge space is not available in nursery, parents are required to provide the packed meals in a thermally insulted lunch box or bag, with freezer blocks to keep foods chilled.
Foods can be kept at room temperature for no longer than 4 hours*, therefore, if you are unable to provide a thermally insulted meal box / bag with freezer blocks, then you will need to arrange for it to be delivered to the nursery within the recommended time limit..
Packed meals will be served between:
- 30am – 8.30am (funded Breakfast)
- 10am (Snack time)
- 12.00am – 12.30pm (Packed Lunch)
- 12.00pm Snack for our settings that are open until 4pm
- 45pm (Tea for our Day nursery)
Different foods should be individually wrapped to help reduce likelihood of cross-contamination.
All meal bags MUST be clearly and securely labelled with the following information:
- Child’s full name
- Breakfast (funded morning only), Snack, Lunch and Tea to be separated and clearly labelled in the meal bag.
- Any dietary requirements that your child has, such as vegetarian or fish allergy.
* SAFER FOOD BETTER BUSINESS FOR CATERERS
Parent/carers must complete a ‘Packed Meal Declaration’ slip indicating what allergens are present from the list of 14 allergens; we require just one slip daily per bag/box for the overall contents. The slip will also list any foods that are omitted at the nursery where the nursery has identified a need for a food item to be excluded. If a food item is listed on the slip this must not be present in a packed meal.
Snack
Parents will be required to provide a daily fruit option and carbohydrate snack. This can include rice cakes, crackers, and breadsticks.
Formula Milk
Parents will be required to provide formula milk daily in milk powder unopened pot or unopened ready to drink cartons. Milk provided must be labelled with your child’s full name and the number of scoops (powder) measured to enable nursery colleagues to add the correct measure of water to powder. The milk chart will need to be completed stating the brand of milk and updated to reflect any changes on the child’s registration form before you start. It is the parent’s responsibility to inform nursery colleagues should there be a change in the brand of milk supplied and the milk chart updated. It is the parent’s responsibility in ensuring that enough milk is provided to meet the individual needs of your child.
Waste and Disposal
All uneaten foods in unopened packets/boxes as well as whole fruits such as bananas will be sent home at the end of the nursery day. This will enable parents to monitor what their child has consumed during the day and then raise any concerns over their child’s food intake within nursery. All other left-over food will be disposed of at nursery to promote good hygiene practices.
Things to consider when packing your child’s meals:
- Foods are suitable for your child, considering their age and stage of development – please follow the Food Standards Agency ‘Early years choking hazards food safety advice’ for cutting and preparing your child’s food.
- Is the food easy for your child to eat?
- Ensure the food is presented in a way that is inviting to eat.
- Only contains food that have been tried at home.
- For weaning babies, please ensure food is prepared so that it is suitable for the age and stage, to minimise risk of choking.
- Jars and weaning foods must be in sealed containers. These will not be reheated.
Monitoring
- To promote healthy eating, nursery colleagues will check the content of packed meals and make sure they are adhere to the Food and Nutrition Policy.
- Parents and carers who do not adhere to the Packed Meal Policy will be spoken to with guidance given. If a child regularly brings in packed meals that does not follow the policy, the nursery will reserve the right to remove all funded sessions.
- If children arrive at nursery without their packed meals, families will be contacted and expected to plan for healthy packed meals to be delivered to nursery by 10.30am or after 12pm and before 3pm for the afternoon. The responsibility lies with the parent regarding.
