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Nutritional Policy for Daycares

Children's nutrition can affect growth, health, and obesity. The nutritional policy in daycares helps determine whether a children receives good nutrition. Because of this influence, it is important for children to be in daycares with beneficial nutritional policies. When choosing a daycare, parents should consider various aspects of the nutritional policy.

  1. National Requirements

    • Daycares that are in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) must meet certain criteria for the food they serve. They must serve a part of the child's daily requirements for certain nutrients, and include servings from different food groups. The CACFP guidelines were developed to ensure nutritional adequacy, and not to address obesity.

    Served Food

    • Many daycares supply meals including breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. They may prepare this food on-site, or order it from a food service or catering company. These daycares may have nutritional policies concerning these foods, such as the amount of fat or number of servings of fruits and vegetables offered per day. Parents can ask to see a weekly or monthly menu to help them evaluate the nutrition policy of the daycare, and they should ask about special needs such as allergies or food intolerances.

    Foods from Home

    • Some daycares that allow foods from home limit the types of foods that parents send. They may ban high fat or sugar foods like chips or candy. In addition, daycares may have a policy for birthday parties. They might prohibit junk foods like cupcakes or pizza, and instead ask parents to supply healthier snacks for their children's birthday celebrations.

    Nutrition Education

    • Some daycares require their staff to learn basic nutrition as part of their initial or ongoing training. Daycare directors may also encourage their caregivers to reinforce healthy nutrition policy during meals. Staff might praise a child for eating carrots, or mention that milk builds strong bones. To teach children, daycares may display age-appropriate nutrition-related materials in the daycare center so that children can learn from them. An example is the USDA Mypyramid for preschoolers.

    Considerations

    • Aside from the CACFP standards, regulations regarding nutritional policy for daycares vary throughout the nation. Different states have varying nutritional policy criteria for their child care centers to be licensed. Parents are responsible for finding out what their states require. Parents should also try to verify that their daycare centers are truly implementing, and not ignoring, their nutritional policies.

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