Nutrition - Starting Out On A Balanced And Varied Diet

Happy Times believes that children’s nutrition is vital for their physical and intellectual development and we therefore take nutrition very seriously. We also believe that a balanced diet in the early years will not only teach your child good eating habits, it will also form the basis of a lifetime of good health.

During the first 3 to 6 months, a baby only requires milk, and at Happy Times it is either expressed or organic formula. However, we supplement bottle feeding with pureed meals as early as 4 months, to introduce solid textures.
After the first year, babies can progress to eating similar meals to the rest of the family, albeit in softer form and smaller morsels. But milk remains important because of its fat content, as under 5s require proportionally more fat than older children and adults.

We provide three fresh meals a day which are not only nutritionally balanced but also fun to eat. We appreciate that many children have special dietary requirements for a variety of reasons and we do whatever we can to accommodate these needs. We operate a pictorial colour coded table-mat system to identify children with special dietary requirements and have categorised our menus into the following seven types:

• Regular – can eat everything
  
• Vegetarian – no meat or fish
  
• Wheat (gluten) free
  
• Dairy (lactose) free
  
• No red meat
  
• No pork
  
• Own food

Beef, nuts and strawberries are never included in our menus. We also minimise the use of processed foods in our four-weekly menus and use low-salt products where foods are not prepared from base ingredients by our caterers. We are very happy to meet with parents who would like to discuss their child's dietary needs.

Happy Times sample menus
Here are some of the dishes children look forward to eating:

Happy Menu: 4 to 6 months

• Breakfast: Summer fruit cereal
  
• Lunch: Pureed sweet potato and broccoli
  
• Tea: Pureed banana and melon

Happy Menu: 6 to 12 months

• Breakfast: Creamed oat porridge
  
• Lunch: Pasta Florentine, apple and raisin compote
  
• Tea: Banana, avocado and fromage frais delight, mini sandwiches with date spread and melon cubes
  

Happy Menu: 1 to 5 years

• Breakfast: Weetabix and fresh milk
  
• Lunch: Thai chicken and rice
  
• Tea: Cream cheese bagels, carrot sticks and water melon slices
  

This week’s menu Click here to see what is being served at Happy Times this week.

Our caterers
Catering across all Happy Times nurseries is provided by Holroyd Howe whose on-site chefs and catering assistants are an essential part of the Happy Times team.

Holroyd Howe’s goal is to be recognised as the leading independent contract caterer for quality food, service and management expertise. For Happy Times, their focus is on sourcing authentic high quality ingredients to create simple, flavoursome dishes appropriate for our children.

Holroyd Howe
For more information on our caterers please visit the Holroyd Howe website

Recipe ideas
For a tasty and nutritious recipe idea, click here for this week’s recipe; provided by Holroyd Howe for you to try at home.

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