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Child Care Centres
Child Care Centre Manual
Chapter 1 - Health Records for Children and Staff
Keeping accurate, up-to-date records for the children in your care is an important, legislated part of your job.
Child Health
Early identification of speech and language delays can help children get the help they need to prevent later difficulties with speaking, listening, social interaction and reading. As a Child Care Provider, you can help! You can offer speech and language screening for all children when they register in your program.
Food Safety
Food safety is especially important in a childcare setting because any illness that can be spread through food or water may have a more serious impact on young children that on adults and may be spread more rapidly within any environment involving extensive interaction between young children.
Immunization
Keeping accurate, up-to-date records for the children in your care is an important, legislated part of your job. It is a requirement of the Child Care and Early Years Act to help ensure a healthier environment for everyone.
Infectious Diseases
Day Care Centres are ideal places for the spread of infectious diseases because of the large number of young people in close contact with each other that may have not yet developed good personal hygiene habits or immunity.
Infection Control and Outbreak Management
Public Health staff will help in the management and prevention of outbreaks of illness at daycares. An outbreak occurs when there is an increase in the number of infections that come in above normal in a given period of time.
Early recognition and reporting of outbreaks will help further decrease the number of children and staff affected as well as shorten the duration of the outbreak.
How to Report an Outbreak
If you suspect an outbreak at your facility, contact APH as soon as possible to discuss outbreak management and control with a Public Health Inspector. During evenings, weekends and holidays, contact 705-254-6611.
Chapter 5 - Nutrition
Caregivers and parents play a key role in developing children's eating habits. Children's eating is influenced by the types of foods provided, how meals are structured, role modeling and the family and social environment. Positive early childhood experiences regarding food and the social environment in which children eat are critical to the development of healthy eating habits later in life.
Nutrition for Child Care Settings
Child care providers play an important role in helping children develop healthy relationships with eating and food. As young children may consume more than half of their meals or snacks while in child care, providing nutritious food in a positive way is essential for healthy growth and development. Ontario Dietitians in Public Health has developed resources to assist Child Care Centres in meeting the food and drink requirements in the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014.
Algoma Public Health can support Child Care Centres with resources, training and support to provide a healthy nutrition environment. Licensed Child Care Centres are required to provide meals, snacks and beverages as set out in the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 (section 42 of Ont. Reg. 137/15).
Ontario Dietitians in Public Health has created a variety of nutrition resources to help child care providers plan and prepare healthy food for the children in their care in a supportive nutrition environment.
Resources:
Menu Planning & Supportive Nutrition Environments in Child Care Settings – Practical Guide
This Practical Guide includes evidence-based recommendations on menu planning, portion sizes, healthy food and beverage choices, sample menus and templates, as well as strategies to create a supportive nutrition environment.
Menu and Nutrition Environment Self-Assessment Tool for Child Care Settings
This Self-Assessment Tool, which complements the Practical Guide, can be used by cooks, chefs and providers to assess if their menus meet the food and drink requirements in the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014. It will help Child Care Centres determine what is going well and what improvements can be made to the menu and nutrition environment.
Paint Your Plate with Vegetables and Fruit – A Toolkit for Ontario Child Care Providers
The goal of this toolkit is to expose young children to a variety of vegetables and fruit in the child care setting. It offers menu ideas and recipes, interactive games and activities, promotional materials and sample policies to integrate vegetables and fruit into daily practices and a supportive environment.
Online Learning Modules
Developed for child care operators, supervisors, cooks and staff working in the child care setting, these online modules can help with understanding and application of the nutrition recommendations outlined in the Menu Planning & Supportive Nutrition Environments in Child Care Settings – Practical Guide. The four modules are: Introduction and Choosing Food, Amounts to Prepare, Planning and Revising a Menu and Creating a Supportive Nutrition Environment.
Additional Nutrition Tools and Resources
Canada's Food Guide – provides healthy eating guidance for Canadians over 2 years of age.
UnlockFood.ca – This website from Dietitians of Canada provides information on nutrition, food, healthy eating and disease prevention along with recipes, videos and interactive tools.
Nutri-eSTEP – a simple screening questionnaire that can be used to help families determine if their toddler or preschooler is a healthy eater.
Telehealth Ontario – Call 1-866-797-0000 to speak to a Registered
Dietitian for free around any healthy eating questions. This service is available weekdays from 9-5
Oral Health Services
A healthy mouth is important for a child to develop physically, socially and emotionally. There are many factors that contribute to dental health.
Chapter 7 - Infection Control Cleaning and Disinfecting
Good cleaning and sanitizing practices can prevent outbreaks of illness within your child care center. Having a proper cleaning schedule for your centre is the first step to ensuring that the cleaning is being done effectively and regularly.
Safe Environments
Our indoor and outdoor environments are important to our overall health.
Water Safety
Operators must provide potable water and comply with provincial regulations regarding sampling and treatment.