With all the food and feasting associated with Christmas, it got us thinking about food hygiene and safety for children. Aside from keeping alert to possible allergens, parents need to be careful to ensure families remain safe from illnesses caused by food hygiene mishaps. After all, such illnesses can be particularly dangerous to little ones, who are fragile, but can be largely avoidable when good hygiene measures are taken. With that in mind, today’s post outlines various ways in which parents can stay on top of hygiene around the preparation of food for their children. And, of course, such measures will keep adults safer too.
A Clean Environment for Food Preparation
Ensuring the food preparation environment is clean and hygienic will reduce the chance of microbes, including germs and viruses, contaminating food. Wiping down with warm, soapy, water on clean dish cloths is ideal for many such tasks. Anti-bacterial sprays are useful but should not be allowed to contaminate food, plates and cutlery etc. directly or indirectly.
- Keep kitchen worktops, sinks, cupboard doors, drawer handles and door knobs clean and hygienic.
- Remember to do likewise for electronic appliance doors, handles, knobs, and buttons. For example, on fridges, freezers, microwaves, air fryers, ovens, and hobs.
- Utensils also need to be clean and hygienic before being used for food preparation.
- Cutlery, plates, food bowls, and serving bowls/utensils also need to be spotlessly clean before food is served on them.
- Tea towels, hand towels and dish cloths should be regularly laundered in hot water to prevent them being contaminated or becoming breeding grounds for bacteria.
- Do not let pets, e.g. cats, access worktops etc. where food is prepared.
Good Personal Hygiene
Those preparing food, whether they are parents, relatives, or children helping, also need to ensure good hygiene protocols are followed.
- Wash hands and fingers thoroughly using warm soapy water, rinse well and dry using a clean towel or equivalent before preparing food.
- Ensure long hair is tied back for both personal safety and food hygiene reasons.
- Food should not be prepared by anyone who is feeling ill or who has any kind of bug.
- Avoid coughing or sneezing near food.
- Avoid smoking near food preparation and eating areas; it’s not good for children – or adults.
Safety & Hygiene Around Food Preparation
In regard to food safety, some key basics are essential to get right.
Only feed children, especially babies and under-fives, age-appropriate food/meals. This is very important because many foods contain too much salt, sugar and saturated fats for young children. Some other foods can contain dangerous levels of toxins or even heavy metals. Learn more on the NHS website.- Feed children a healthy, balanced diet with appropriate portion sizes.
- Only use food, that’s been stored correctly, within its ‘use by’ or ‘best before’ dates.
- Read food packaging to ensure you are not using anything containing known allergens that affect your child, or any ingredients they’re intolerant to.
- Prepare food according to instructions on food packets, for example, in regard to cooking times, cooking temperatures and, if appropriate, defrosting times.
- Ensure frozen food is thoroughly defrosted before cooking.
- Always ensure cooked food is fully cooked, including on the inside, before serving.
- Before serving, test the food’s temperature to ensure it’s not too hot for your child. This is especially important for food that is microwaved as it may not cook evenly without stirring/mixing and can also continue cooking once removed from the appliance.
Only feed children, especially babies and under-fives, age-appropriate food/meals. This is very important because many foods contain too much salt, sugar and saturated fats for young children. Some other foods can contain dangerous levels of toxins or even heavy metals. The safe handling and preparation of food itself is also crucial. There are some specifics to be aware of:
- Always thoroughly wash vegetables, fruit and salads and, when appropriate, peel vegetables before use.
- Rice is a special case to be wary of (see next section for more details).
- Never feed eggs to children under 6 months.
- For children over 6 months of age, it’s best to source chicken eggs stamped with the Red Lion (British Lion Mark), particularly if they’re to be only lightly cooked or used raw, for example, in mayonnaise.
- All other types of egg must be thoroughly cooked, so that both yolk and egg white are firm and opaque, before serving to children.
- Always ensure fish, shellfish, prawns, and other seafood is cooked thoroughly.
Always thoroughly wash vegetables, fruit and salads and, when appropriate, peel vegetables before use.Safety Around Food Storage
- Ensure your fridge is set to the right temperature and that its door remains fully closed when not being accessed.
- Keep it clean and clear up any spillages right away if they occur.
- Keep foods like meat, fish, and seafood in the fridge until needed (discard if past their ‘use by’ date).
- Raw meat, fish and seafoods should be separated, stowed in individual containers with covers, and stored away from other foods on the bottom shelf of the fridge. By doing so, it will avoid the likelihood of them dripping onto other foods.
- Never be tempted to put pre-cooked food in the fridge or freezer while it is still warm, especially near meat and seafood products.
- Instead, ensure they are rapidly cooled before placing into the fridge/freezer (e.g. by placing in a sealed Tupperware-type container and running under the cold tap).
- Meat and fish/seafood should be rapidly cooled within 1 to 2 hours maximum before placing in the fridge or freezer once fully cold.
- Rice is a special case and must be rapidly cooled within one hour before placing in the fridge. This is so as to avoid the build-up of toxins that are particular to rice.
- For the same reason, rice should only ever be reheated a maximum of once and then only eaten if consumed within 24 hours of being originally cooked.
- Frozen food is best labelled and dated to better ensure that it is consumed within an appropriate time.
Teach Your Child About Food Safety & Hygiene
It’s hugely beneficial if children learn about food safety and proper hygiene associated with its preparation. Such things are useful life lessons and will help to keep them more safe and free of illnesses and nasty bugs. Teach them by example whenever possible. A great start is to encourage them to thoroughly wash their hands and fingers with warm, soapy water before preparing or eating food. They should also be encouraged to sit down at the table and be in a calm state before eating. This will help to better ensure food does not become contaminated or knocked onto a dirty floor. It will also reduce the chance of the child choking on food.
Food is one of life’s great pleasures and ensuring good hygiene around its preparation will help to keep it that way. Teaching children good hygiene habits will not only help to keep them safe and well, but will also encourage independence and the development of responsibility. Such things are key skills they’ll need as they grow older, particularly when they start school.
Healthy Eating at Little Cedars Nursery, SW16
At Little Cedars Nursery in Streatham, we recognise how important good food and high-quality meals are to children under five. When it’s right, it boosts cognitive function and energy levels, ensures they receive good nutrition as they grow, and boosts their overall well-being. We therefore employ our own in-house chef who prepares fresh, balanced meals for children every day. The menu is varied, accounts for special diets, and uses only the most fresh, high-quality ingredients. Click the following bold link for our guide to healthy eating for under-fives.
A Nursery Place for Your Child in Streatham
To learn more about Little Cedars Nursery in Streatham and explore a possible place for your child, please get in touch:
Safety Notice
PLEASE NOTE: These are starter guidelines only — parents/guardians should do their own comprehensive risk assessments. Children should only help to prepare food under close adult supervision. Ensure they keep safe from sharp implements like knives and heat sources like stoves, ovens, and even hot food. There are also other potentially harmful things in kitchens such as chillies, which could get into their eyes if handled inappropriately, and harmful chemicals in things like dishwasher tablets. So, check thoroughly, supervise children, and be alert. In case of an emergency, call 999 to seek urgent medical attention.
The NHS 
Try small, finger-sized watermelon sticks; they’re delicious, nutritious and refreshing for your little one.
Consider using soft-cooked carrots, peppers, or cauliflower in finger-sized stick form, or even broccoli florets. Cucumber sticks are also an option but don’t require soft-cooking.
Another firm favourite with toddlers is a hard-boiled egg sliced into holdable fingers. Such slices are rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals.
The arrival of October means it’s time for children and families to prepare for Halloween! Arriving on the 31st of the month, it’s a firm favourite for any childhood and gives children the opportunity for uniquely spooky fun, games and dressing up. Indeed, Halloween offers a wonderful variety of activities for children to take part in and that’s exactly what we look at in today’s article. Stand by, then, to prepare the household for some spookylicious Halloween activity ideas for kids!
Children adore dressing up for Halloween. The spooky nature of Halloween costumes really appeals to them, especially if they get together with friends and compare outfits on Halloween evening.
Similarly, black sheets are easy to make into witch or wizard outfits. Alternatively, use black clothing and, if it’s no longer being worn for anything else, it can even be given ragged edges for extra effect. Add pointy black hats made of cardboard or paper and the costumes are complete.
If you want your child’s Halloween experience to be truly spooktacular, encourage them to decorate the house – whether inside or out – with all manner of ghoulish decorations and ghostly paraphernalia. Home-made spider webs can, of course, be made using string, thread or stretched-out cotton wool. However, such decorations can usually be purchased inexpensively from supermarkets, which typically have cheap Halloween decorations around October each year. Spiders can be home-made by children from wool or black pipe cleaners, or similarly bought commercially along with shop-bought decorations depicting skeletons, ghosts, bats and suchlike. You can also buy LED lights, including strings of lights, that look like Halloween pumpkin lanterns. Such lighting is great for extra atmosphere!
If your household is carving pumpkins for Halloween this year, perhaps save some of the flesh and use it to make a spookylicious pumpkin soup for the family to eat come Halloween evening time. There are plenty of excellent recipes online and children can help make the soup, under supervision for safety purposes.
Children can combine Halloween fancy dress costumes, spooky decorations, and themed food and drink by hosting a Halloween party for friends and family. Such preparations are sure to set up a wonderfully spooky atmosphere in which children will have immense fun comparing outfits and getting into the spirit of the event. Add Halloween-themed games, play ghostly music and take turns to read ghost stories and the evening is sure to be one to remember! It’s also a great conduit through which children can socialise and perhaps grow stronger bonds.
Take the Halloween activities to an extra level by arranging a group trick-or-treat session, under adult supervision, for children in your street. They will absolutely love this activity and it’s sure to result in much giggling and laughter if it goes as planned. However, be sure to check with each neighbour before the day. In that way, they can opt out if they prefer not to get involved. For those that do take part, most neighbours usually go the ‘treat’ route but be ready for the possibility that a few may opt for the ‘trick’ option, in which scenario the children under your supervision will need to be ready with a fun but harmless trick. Some forethought and creative thinking may be needed there, with care being taken not to allow children to overstep the mark.
Pumpkin patches are often wonderful places for children and families to spend a few hours in the run-up to Halloween. In such places, your little one can explore amongst hundreds of pumpkins and other gourds of different sizes and shapes. And, if they find one they take a liking to, they can usually be purchased to take home, or might even be included in the price if the venue has an entrance fee. Pumpkin patches often also have other Halloween-themed activities at this time of year, whether it’s displays where you can take memorable snaps of your child amongst the pumpkins, wheelbarrow rides for children across a pumpkin field, pop-up refreshments with Halloween-themed food and drink or pumpkin-decorating workshops, they’re always great fun for children. They really help to make Halloween the special time of year that it is.
Once you’ve sourced a suitable pumpkin for your child, it’s time for the really fun part — pumpkin carving and decorating! While the carving part may not be suited to children of a young age (knives are super-dangerous), they can usually help, under supervision, with scooping out the flesh and then, the most fun part of all, decorating. Pumpkins can depict faces, spiders, owls or any spooky imagery you or your little one can imagine. And, even if they may be too young to carve the holes,
they can still decorate using paint or markers, or simply enjoy Mum or Dad getting creative on their behalves.
TIP: Kids don’t even really need a pumpkin; the smallest of children can decorate oranges or yellow/orange bell peppers! They look really cute and an added bonus is that they avoid the need for any carving.
A wonderful way to 
Combine with our Bird-Spotting Activity
The fastest and easiest bird feeder for children/families to make is simply an apple. This can either be hung with string from a tree branch, bush, or similar, or the apple can be ‘spiked’ on the pointy end of a tree branch, a strong twig or something like a bamboo pole embedded in the ground (so long as it’s tall enough to keep birds safe* from predators). Easy! We suggest stripping some of the apple skin off to expose the flesh. Apples are a particular favourite of blackbirds and bluetits, amongst others.
This is also a very easy bird feeder for children/families to make. All you need is some string and some monkey nuts* (peanuts still in their outer husk). A supervising adult will need to make some small holes in one end of each husk and then string can be threaded through to form a kind of chain (like a necklace). Monkey nuts can be threaded on to form the right length and then this can be tied between the branches of a tree, or similar. See our note about safely locating* them, though.
Home-made seed cakes are another type of bird feeder that is both easy and fun for children to make. Basically, they consist of lots of seeds mixed into a ‘cake’ made from either suet* or lard*. The seeds are mixed in when the lard or suet is melted, so parents/adults will need to help with that part as it’s done by heating it in a saucepan. Once melted, the seeds can be added and mixed in. Once cool enough to be safe, the children can take over to make most of the feeders. First, a piece of string can be tied from the centre of the base of something like a flower pot or yoghurt pot (parents should make the hole, if needed). Then the child can mould the seed cake into the pots, or other similar plastic containers. Once cooled, the seed cakes will harden and can then be suspended from the branches of a tree, bush, fence post or under the eaves of a house or outbuilding. Bluetits, great tits, starlings and robins will usually be the first to try out the new cakes.
Your choice of seeds directly affects the success – or otherwise – of your bird feeders. While many commercially-available seed mixtures contain several different types of seed, we have found that birds ignore some of them, so they go to waste. Our own bird feeders have been far more popular when they use more sunflower ‘hearts’ (the sunflowers without the other case) and less of the wheat and barley type seeds. Crushed peanuts* are also popular, but see our notes below about the safety of both baby birds and children when it comes to nuts.
Another type of bird feeder that is both fun and easy to make is a pine cone feeder. All you need is a big pine cone, ideally with the cone splines open, a birdseed mixture and either peanut butter*, suet* or lard*. All your child needs to do is paste the peanut butter (or suet or lard that’s been safely warmed to soften it) all over the pine cone, including into the open splines. Then the whole thing can be rolled over your seed mixture, so the seeds stick all over the pine cone. Once complete, the pine cone feeder can be hung with a piece of string in an appropriate place outside. Even better: hang several together so the birds can’t miss them. The birds will love pecking them when they’re hungry.
Bird feeders made from recycled cartons can be great fun, fairly easy and can be quite creative. All you need is an empty milk or juice carton, by which we mean the card ‘Tetra Pak’ type, plus some bird seed/food and some string. Parents will need to help younger children safely attach the string to the tops of the cartons and cut flaps/openings into the sides of the carton. These can be folded down, as shown in the photo, and suspended outside somewhere suitable for the birds. For extra creative fun, children can first paint patterns, designs or even faces on the cartons. This type of bird feeder is great because it not only holds the bird food but also potentially gives birds somewhere safe to land while feeding. As they were originally for holding liquid, they can alternatively be used to hold drinking water for birds — or perhaps children can make one for food and another for drinking water.
In a similar way, clear plastic bottles can be used as bird feeders or for water. The same approach can be used but flaps are not advised as they’re trickier for children to fold and also plastic bottles will have sharper edges than the carton approach above. So, this particular type of bird feeder needs extra supervision from a parent or adult. Take a look at the photos to see what’s possible, though. One photo (the first small image at the start of this article) even shows a plastic spoon that’s used as a landing platform and seed dispenser, all in one. Once finished, plastic bottle feeders tend to last a long time, so long as they’re regularly cleaned and refilled.
In our last post, we asked 
For those on dairy-based formula milk, it’s pretty much plain sailing too. Because vegetarians — as opposed to vegans — are OK eating dairy-based food, formula milk is generally fine for them. The most popular types are based on cows’ milk, although several other animal milks are also available. So long as dairy-based formula milk is high quality, given in the right quantities, consumed at the right intervals and is age appropriate for the child, it contains all the nutrients and vitamins needed. That’s without the need to give additional supplements too.
Fruit and vegetables are really a given because they pack so much goodness, including many vitamins, minerals like potassium and also fibre. Fresh vegetables and fruit are ideal but, failing that, frozen, tinned and even dried varieties are also OK.
Tofu, also known as bean curd, which is made from soy.
any pulses, seeds or grains should be sprouted, cooked or soaked before consumption (as appropriate);
Let’s first take a look at the benefits of vegetarianism …
is linked to a reduction in symptoms for those with asthma;
Scientific studies conclude that switching to a vegetarian diet will help the planet enormously. That’s because significantly less greenhouse gas is produced in growing crops compared to raising livestock. What’s more, scientists believe that the necessary reduction in green house gas emissions will be achieved far more swiftly through a widespread switch to vegetarianism than through what’s currently just a gradual shift away from the burning of fossil fuels. Growing crops rather than animals also causes far less pollution in waterways and oceans and also uses significantly less water. The benefits of vegetarianism to the planet are simply enormous.
Is a Vegetarian or Vegan Diet Safe for Children?
Also known as complementary feeding, weaning is an important milestone for any parent or baby and usually occurs when the baby reaches the age of about 6 months. Sometimes babies simply tire of milk and weaning thereby comes naturally. In other cases, a baby needs a bit more encouragement to make their transition towards solids. Here, we’ll explore the whole topic of weaning in more detail, including ways parents can help to make the transition smoothly and stress-free for all parties.
Weaning should be fun and it’s also the only time in a child’s life where they won’t have any preconceived ideas about what foods they “do or don’t like”. So, parents can experiment, within reason of course. It’s a time when introducing new foods to the baby comes naturally once the baby has caught on to the idea of this new experience.
Don’t rush it; set aside some time with baby so it’s relaxed, otherwise everyone can get stressed, especially initially.
You can later move on to whole, (adult) finger-sized pieces of very soft fruits that baby can learn to hold. However, do read the Health & Safety Considerations section below before moving to un-mashed foods.
Huge care needs to be taken to avoid giving infants anything that’s going to represent a potential choking hazard. Whole grapes, cherry tomatoes or anything else of a similar size would be examples of this as they are perfectly sized to block a baby’s airway if not first chopped up. Also avoid anything hard like nuts, raw vegetables or un-mashed apple and ensure that any pips/seeds/stones are removed from fruit and bones are removed from fish or meat.
Always try to maintain a varied diet for the infant, so they get all the vitamins and nutrients they need as they intake less and less milk. Ensure the foods contain sufficient iron, which can be sought from fortified cereal, fish, milk, dark green vegetables, lentils and beans. Giving them finger foods to hold and eat themselves is a great way to encourage them to feed themselves (under supervision, of course). As they grow older they can be encouraged to eat at the family table with parents/siblings and eventually upskill to using cutlery, along with eventually learning the rules around good table manners etc.
With families living busy lives these days, it’s not always easy to provide the very best nutritious meals for children. This is compounded by an abundance of ready meals and convenience food available in shops and advertised everywhere. However, healthy, balanced diets are incredibly important for children in their early years. Adopting a healthy diet early on can mean that some diseases associated with later life can be avoided. Healthy food also has other beneficial effects on growing children including sustained energy levels, improved cognitive activity, the evening out of a child’s moods, help with mental wellbeing and maintaining a healthy weight.
Make sure you give the 
Childhood obesity is a growing problem in the UK, with nearly a third of children aged two to fifteen being overweight or obese. What’s more, data shows that children are becoming overweight at ever-earlier ages and are generally eating less fruit, vegetables, oily fish and fibre than is recommended. The lack of a varied diet will leave children lacking in some essential vitamins and minerals. This is all of major concern. Obesity alone can lead to health issues in later life such as diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure and even cancer. It may also lead to bullying and self-consciousness which may adversely affect a child’s self-esteem and mental wellbeing.
