I’ve had the opportunity to work with hundreds of daycare centers. During my courses on baby-led weaning (BLW) and choking prevention, I have learned about the various rules applied at these daycares. Here are some feeding tips for successful mealtimes at daycare.

Liquids: Most of the daycare centers I’ve worked with only allow children to drink liquids from a Sippy cup. They explained to me that this requirement is due to liability issues associated with children or staff slipping due to spills from a cup. Since most Sippy cups are leakproof, this helps them to maintain their liability requirement.

• Straw Cup Development: However, once I educate the daycare team regarding the developmental benefits of using a straw cup over a Sippy cup (while still decreasing spills), nearly 80% have allowed straw cups to be used at their facilities. This not only helps children reach their feeding and drinking milestones, but also encourages good oral hygiene and speech development!
• Straw Cup Safety: Choose a straw cup that will teach your child to drink from a straw safety. Our Mini Cup + Straw Training System is the perfect system to pack for daycare!

Foods: Some daycare centers I’ve worked with provide food + snacks and will even offer the family leftovers if the parents provide a to-go container. Other facilities will not provide food due to food allergy liability issues, and parents are expected to provide food. Whatever your provider allows, here are some meal packing tips for food.  

• Plates: When packing meals for daycare, try to remember to pack three different types of foods: a protein, a carb and a fruit/veggie. To help give you a visual reminder, use the ezpz Mini Mat, which has three sections to make meal planning easy! You can also purchase a lid for the Mini Mat for transport.
• Bowls: Daycare providers often use paper bowls for both snacks and meals. This is a strategy they implement to help reduce cleanup time for the staff. To help reduce this waste you can provide the daycare staff with either the Tiny Bowl (for infants) or Mini Bowl (for toddlers). Be sure to educate them about the suction feature of ezpz products – this feature decreases spills and improves your child’s fine motor skills for feeding! We have lids that are available for both of these products, too: Tiny Bowl Lid and Mini Bowl Lid.

Feeding: Some daycares will not allow a baby (6-12 months old) to feed themselves. Instead, the teachers are required to spoon feed every baby. When I educate the daycare centers that baby-led self feeding is a developmental milestone and that a 6-12-month-old child can (in fact) feed themselves, most adopt a baby-led approach at their center.

• Utensils: Provide your daycare with baby-led utensils to help facilitate your baby’s feeding development. The Tiny Spoon is a baby-led weaning spoon that allows your baby to bring food to their mouth. The size of the spoon and sensory bumps help decrease gagging commonly associated with starting solids. The Mini Utensils consist of a Mini Spoon and Mini Fork that help toddlers learn how to scoop and pierce. Since the tines of the fork are rounded, most of the daycare centers I have contacted will allow them to be brought into the center by a parent. Some facilities will not let parents bring in sharp forks or knives for mealtime.

Communication: In my daycare courses I recommend that the staff meet with parents every quarter for a quick 15-minutes to discuss the feeding and drinking goals of each child. Communication between the teachers and parents is critical, especially with the birth-to-three age group.

• Meeting Agenda: In the meeting it’s important to discuss food allergies, swallowing issues, mealtime concerns and consumption. Be prepared to show pictures and/or videos of your child successfully using a cup or spoon in order to encourage the staff to support your child’s feeding development.

I hope these feeding tips will enhance you and your child’s daycare experience! What are some of your tips for daycare? If ezpz products are a part of mealtime at your daycare, share your tips and pics with us using the hashtags #ezpzfun and #myezpzmat.