Health & Nutrition
Daycare Food Menu
Maple Tree Montessori Childcare – Oakville collaborates with a registered dietician to develop standard menus for all of our programs that are both nutritious and appealing for children. Our daycare food menus follow Canada’s Food Guide and are culturally sensitive. You can view the menu on the Parent Communication board. We accommodate dietary or religious food requirements for children in our programs. Wherever possible we use whole wheat and whole grain pastas, cereals, crackers and breads, milk, lots and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Symptoms of Ill Health
We follow the recommendations of Halton Public Health with regard to symptoms of ill health and exclusion periods. Children must be fever-free, UNMEDICATED, for at least 24 hours before they may return to daycare; and must be symptom-free for a minimum of 48 hours after experiencing vomiting or diarrhea.
This policy is for the protection of all children to help reduce the spread of illness and thereby inconveniencing as few families as possible.
Anaphylaxis/Allergy Policy
As required under Ontario’s Day Nurseries Act, we follow a strict Anaphylaxis Policy. Children with anaphylaxis are required to have a physician signed Anaphylaxis Emergency Plan posted throughout the centre, and may not attend if their Epinephrine Auto injector (Epipen) is not here. It is strongly recommended that an extra Epipen be left at daycare.
Anaphylaxis is a serious allergic reaction that can be fatal. At any given time there are children in attendance with severe allergies that may result in life-threatening anaphylactic reactions. The allergy maybe related to food, insect’s stings, medicine, exercise, latex, etc. The purpose of the policy is to provide a process for dealing with Anaphylaxis in the centre and to implement preventative measures.
Preventive Measures
All PEANUT AND ALL NUT products are banned from the centre. The food provider has been advised of this policy and is also a no nut facility.
All labels will be read by staff members prior to serving and food labels with “May Contain” warnings for peanuts and nuts will not be served
All children and staff will wash hands before and after eating
All cleaning supplies, medicines and any other products that maybe of danger and/or commonly produce allergic reactions will be stored away safely
The menu will be reviewed periodically and certain food and materials will be avoided on the menu depending on the life-threating allergies of the children enrolled
The food provider will be kept current and notified of all life-threatening allergies in the Centre. List of all allergies will be revised as necessary
Parents are not permitted to send any food items to the Centre at all times
