Required
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Examples in the guidance
Any examples in the guidance are provided as a starting point to show how services can meet (or exceed) the requirement. Services may choose to use other approaches better suited to their needs as long as they comply with the criteria.
HS16 Food and nutrition
Criteria
Food is served at appropriate times to meet the nutritional needs of each child while they are attending. Where food is provided by the service, it is of sufficient variety, quantity and quality to meet the nutritional and developmental needs of each child. Where food is provided by parents, the service encourages and promotes healthy eating guidelines.
Documentation required
A record of all food served during the service's hours of operation (other than that provided by parents for their own children). Records show the type of food provided and are available for inspection for 3 months after the food is served.
Rationale/intent
The criterion aims to uphold the health, safety and wellbeing of children by ensuring the service meets their nutritional needs or alternatively encourages parents to do so. Requirement to keep records for 12 months has been reduced to 3, as this is considered to be a more useful minimum period of time. Record-keeping requirements serve 2 purposes:
- to demonstrate compliance with the criterion and
- to provide useful information in the event of any allergic reactions that may develop in children attending.
Guidance
Food is served at appropriate times to meet the nutritional needs of children while they are attending
Services may have set mealtimes or have “rolling kai”, that is, that children are able to eat when they are hungry. It is important to ensure whichever practice is followed:
- food is available for tamariki when they are hungry and
- children are supervised and seated while eating (HS19 Supervision while eating, below) and
- there is a place set aside for the children to sit and eat (PF12 Dining facilities).
Where food is provided by the service, it is of sufficient variety, quantity and quality to meet the nutritional and developmental needs of each child
It is important to engage with whānau when determining the food to serve to tamariki that is of sufficient variety, quantity and quality to meet the nutritional and developmental needs of each child.
The Ministry of Health provide guidance which classifies foods based on their nutritional value with colour codes in the healthy food and drink guidance. The Ministry of Health have determined that healthy options (Green) should make up at least 75% of foods and drinks served at early learning services. For children under 2 years of age, all food and drink provided should be green.
Healthy food and drink guidance: Early learning services – Ministry of Health
The Ministry of Education would consider services to be in breach of this criteria if for example:
- services prepared foods for 4 to 6-year-olds in accordance with the Ministry of Health guidance for 1 to 3-year-olds for the sake of efficiency or
- services disregard the individual needs of tamariki who were not developing in accordance with expected range of development in small children or
- healthy options make up less than 75% of foods and drinks served.
Where food is provided by parents the service promotes and encourages healthy eating guidelines
Services may choose to develop a healthy food and drink policy with whānau.
Services may provide the healthy food and drink guidance to whānau at the time of enrolment. The guidance may be provided in hard copy, electronically, or via an electronic link for whānau with internet access.
Healthy food and drink guidance: Early learning services – Ministry of Health
Services may display posters which encourage healthy foods and demonstrate how to prepare foods to meet the developmental needs of tamariki.
Documentation
Where a service provides food, a record of the daily menu outlining the ingredients will meet this requirement. Menus are required to be specific in case of an unexpected allergic reaction. For example, what type of fruit or the contents of a sandwich must be recorded to satisfy this requirement.
If food is provided by parents for a shared lunch a list of all food provided is required to meet this requirement
Keep the records of food served for 3 months.
Things to consider
The NZ Heart Foundation has information on their free Healthy Heart Award programme which provides structure and guidance around all aspects of food and nutrition. This includes multilingual lunchbox resources, policies, sample menus and resources to engage whānau and professional development for staff.
Early learning programmes and resources – NZ Heart Foundation
HS17 Food hygiene
Criteria
Food is prepared, served, and stored hygienically.
Rationale/intent
The criterion aims to uphold the health and safety of children by ensuring hygienic practices occur in regard to food.
Guidance
Basic food hygiene is important to avoid outbreaks of food-borne illness in home-based services.
There should be enough fridge space to store chilled foods – including milk and yoghurt provided by parents for infants and children.
Where children are involved in food preparation on a regular basis for consumption by others, food hygiene practices must be maintained and children supervised and provided with guidance around not eating the food and discarding dropped items. There should be utensils provided for children to use and appropriate surfaces should be used.
If children are eating outside, the educator should encourage children to:
- sit on a mat or at an outside table
- eat from a lunchbox or plate
- discard any dropped food and
- have a means of washing or wiping their hands.
For more information on the preparation and storage of infant formula, refer to the guidance for HS20 Bottle feeding (below).
Under the Food Act (2014), home-based educators who prepare and serve food for the children in their care must ensure the food they provide is safe and suitable.
The Ministry for Primary Industries Manatū Ahu Matua (MPI) has developed some food safety guidance and fact sheets for services, as well as providing tips for food safety.
HS18 Drinking water
Criteria
An ample supply of water that is fit to drink is available to children at all times, and older children are able to access this water independently.
Rationale/intent
The criterion aims to uphold the health and safety of children by ensuring they have access to a safe drinking water supply. Requirement for independent access is based on evidence that self-access to water enables children to maintain an adequate level of hydration.
Guidance
Good access to an ample supply of water that is fit to drink needs to be provided for children attending. Older children need to be able to access this water independently.
There are different ways this could be achieved, depending on the age of the children attending the home. These include:
- using individually marked water bottles or sipper cups. Water bottles or sipper cups will need to be emptied and washed daily
- making a water jug and individual cups available for children to pour their own water.
Guidelines concerning the provision of potable (drinkable) water should be available from your district health board.
Things to consider
Homes in rural or isolated areas that are not on a town water supply and use springs, bores or water tanks need to ensure that the water is fit to drink.
There are a number of resources available on the safety of household water from water tanks and bores.
HS19 Supervision while eating
Criteria
Children are supervised and seated while eating.
Where food is provided by the service, foods that pose a high choking risk are not to be served unless prepared in accordance with best practice as set out in Ministry of Health's guide: Reducing food-related choking for babies and young children at early learning services.
Where food is provided by parents, the service promotes best practices as set out in the Ministry of Health's guide and must provide to all parents at the time of enrolment a copy of the pamphlet: Reducing food-related choking for babies and young children at early learning services.
Reducing food-related choking for babies and young childrenRationale/intent
The rationale is to uphold the safety of children by minimising the risk of children choking while eating.
Guidance
Children are supervised while eating
In this criterion, supervised means an adult is assigned to oversee children while they are eating to ensure attention is on the children and not on completing other tasks. The adult assigned must be in close proximity to the children who are eating and know how to respond if a child is choking or has an adverse reaction.
The steps on the KidsHealth page 'What to do if your baby chokes' outlines the appropriate response if a child is choking.
What to do if your baby chokes – KidsHealth
Children are seated while eating
Seated means that children’s weight is supported by their buttocks rather than their feet and their back is upright.
Where practical it is preferable that children are seated in a chair with their food directly in front of them to prevent the child needing to twist to the left or right, which can cause them to lose control of the food in their mouth.
Where food is provided by the service
Foods that pose a high choking risk to children must not be served unless prepared in accordance with the Ministry of Health guidance. This guidance outlines foods that should be excluded from services and how to alter other high-risk foods for different age groups, that is, for 1 to 3 years old, and 4 years up to 6 years.
Eating for healthy babies and toddlers outlines how to prepare foods for newborns to 1-year olds.
Eating for healthy babies and toddlers – HealthEd
When food is provided by parents
Services must provide a copy of the Ministry of Health guidance at the time of enrolment and should record on the enrolment form that this information has been provided and understood by parents.
Services must promote the Ministry of Health Guidance and may demonstrate compliance by developing formal policies and procedure in partnership with whānau (GMA3 Parent involvement).
Any policy could include actions the service will take and how they will communicate with whānau if food is provided that is not prepared in accordance with the Ministry of Health guidance and the service does not consider it to be developmentally appropriate for that child.
Things to consider
- How can educators support children’s safety while they are eating? For example, making sure there are not too many distractions?
- How do children learn what is expected of them while eating? For example, to remain seated until they have finished eating?
- How can educators support children’s learning while I am supervising their eating?
If the educator provides the food:
- Selecting appropriate food for individual children is very important in minimising choking risk. It is important to discuss with a parent or caregiver the foods children can manage safely rather than relying on age alone as the indicator.
Be aware of foods which are more likely to cause choking:
- small hard foods that are difficult for children to bite or chew (for example, nuts, large seeds, popcorn husks, raw carrot, apple, celery)
- small round foods that can get stuck in children’s throats (for example, grapes, berries, raisins, sultanas, peas, watermelon seeds, lollies)
- foods with skins or leaves that are difficult to chew (for example, sausages, chicken, lettuce, nectarines)
- compressible food which can squash into the shape of a child’s throat and get stuck there (for example, hot dogs, sausages, pieces of cooked meat, popcorn)
- thick pastes that can get stuck in children’s throats (for example, chocolate spreads, peanut butter)
- fibrous or stringy foods that are difficult for children to chew (for example, celery, rhubarb, raw pineapple).
To reduce the risk of choking on these foods the educator can:
- alter the food texture – grate, cook, finely chop or mash the food
- remove the high-risk parts of the food – peel off the skin or remove the strong fibres.
HS20 Bottle feeding
Criteria
Infants under the age of 6 months and other children unable to drink independently are held semi-upright when being fed. Any infant milk food given to a child under the age of 12 months is of a type approved by the child's parent.
Rationale/intent
The criterion aims to uphold the safety and wellbeing of children by ensuring they are not 'propped' and left unattended with a bottle. The criterion also ensures a basic level of nurturing behaviour towards infants. The second part of the criterion aims to uphold the health and wellbeing of children by ensuring that breastfed infants are not given infant formula without the knowledge and consent of parents and avoids children being given a type of infant formula that is known by the parent to cause an allergic reaction.
Guidance
Infants or other children with special needs who may not be able to drink independently should not be 'propped up' and left unattended as they can move around or slide over which may lead to choking.
Parents and educators need to decide who provides any infant formula and bottles. If the educator provides the formula, parental approval of the brand/type is required before it is used. If the usual brand/type is unavailable, parental approval of any substitute is also required prior to its use.
It is good practice for the educator is consultation with the family needs to have a procedure for hygienic preparation of bottles including:
- sterilisation of bottles
- handwashing
- timing of preparation – as close as possible to feeding time
- following instructions for the formula (as different brands use different size scoops and volumes of water).
If storage of made-up formula brought by parents is necessary, that it should only be kept in the refrigerator for a maximum of 4 hours past the time it is made up.
The Ministry of Health's health education resource – Feeding your baby infant formula contains useful information on using formula.
