Creating Healthy Menu in OSHC

[taliahmahoney]

Hi everyone, hopefully I'm creating this topic in the right spot
I've been working at my centre for the past 5 years and for the last 4 I've been studying at uni, so this is my first year full-time at work. It's also my coordinator's first year as coordinator here too, so together we've been trying to make some big changes to the menus, procedures, programming... It's been a huge overhaul!
We're currently trying to change our menu, so I've been reading through a lot of suggestions online, looking at the policy, the QLD Smart Choices Strategy, PANOSH and menus from other OSHC. The only problem with these is that they contradict each other a lot and often suggest things like hot dogs, pizza etc.
Our current menu is generally comprised of cereal (cornflakes, weetbix, rice bubbles) and toast with spreads for BSC, and fruit & vegetables and (generally) sandwiches on wholemeal bread for ASC. I've been trying to mix it up in the last few months and put chicken curry, sushi, taco rice, scrolls, salads & pasta for ASC occasionally, but I worry that these options are too high in carbs/sugar.
The other problem we've been having is the influx of children with special dietary requirements. About a quarter of our children (we usually have about 45 in the afternoons) have dietary requirements such as allergies or intolerances (gluten, dairy) and another quarter have special diets (paleo, sugar-free, "only eat foods from mother nature"). I honestly struggle to find options that cater to children who eat everything, and children who have special diets.
So I guess I have two topics I'm dying to discuss with other educators -
1. How do you plan your menus to include healthy options that the children will still eat?
and 2. How do you deal with so many children having special dietary requirements/diets?
At the moment, we're generally preparing the menu and then having a second option for the other children, but the children with dietary requirements are often sad that they have to miss out on what the other children are eating (which I can understand!). Any thoughts would be very appreciated.
Thanks
Taliah

[Lorina]

Hi Tahlia,

It's great to hear that you are makng many changes within your service setting! Sometimes it's great to start everything afresh! In regards to the menu, it's important to cater for all children even though there may be some with dietary requirements.

I guess the best thing for you to do is try and incorporate a menu that includes all children's requirements. This may take a lot longer to plan but at least they wont "miss out". So, you could try ceaser salads, garden salads, vegetable bakes, dips and vegetable sticks, vegetable burgers (without bread or potato for paleo), vegetable cups etc. I think it's probably best starting off with the hardest dietary requirement which is probably paleo and seeing what recipes yo can find and incorporating this into a meal that everyone else can eat. So, for example if you're making vegetable burgers with a yoghurt spread you just need to omit the bread for the "paleo" child. This way no one really misses out...

Here is some info on Paleo recipes for kids:

Paleo Recipes

It's also important to think about the overall dietary requirements of the children and making sure that they have a whole range of foods available based on their nutritional requirements. The following may also help:

Healthy Eating
Nutritional Policy - OOSH

You could ask parents on suggestions for recipe ideas that you could also include into the weekly menu. Great for parent input and you could also add recipes in the newsletter that parents submit.

Hope this gives you some ideas,

,
Lorina

[kellymm20]

Im also very interested in this topic and look forward to reading everyone's suggestions. I know in our centre that we do berry muffins, fried rice, chicken and rice casserole, lots of boring fruit platters and sandwiches, yoghurt, etc...and they can all be adapted to our dietary needs (gluten free, dairy free etc options without children feeling left out.) But to cater to a broader variety is very interesting to me. Not only for my centre but also for my family. We try to eat healthy and my daughter (dreaded aged 13) has recently declared herself a 'red meat' free diet. She simply doesn't like the taste tho. How do we cater for children that 'are independent and like what they like, or those who are restricted by religion or parental dietary requirements'. Excited to hear everyone's thoughts. I must admit i have also seen some negative choices on our menu that i question in my head however i am only newly employed and do not wish to create any issues. For example today i witnessed nachos....some of our children are dairy free and meat free...did that meal really cater to their needs?

[taliahmahoney]

Thank you both for the quick responses!
I think OSHC is such a unique place - it's hard to feed the children good, healthy afternoon tea options and avoid turning it into a meal. I have such a concern with the children eating sandwiches every single afternoon (which is what we used to do and also what a lot of other centres do) simply because of the amount of bread they already eat throughout the day. Toast for breakfast (2 slices), sandwich for lunch (2 slices) and sandwiches for afternoon tea (1-2 slices) can lead to 6 slices of bread a day! I'd love to try out some of the suggestions you made Lorina, especially because they mainly comprise of veggies and stay away from bread/rice/pasta etc. I haven't read the links you posted yet, but I look forward to reading through them

Kelly, I definitely agree that it's hard to watch decisions like that especially when you're new to the workplace. When I started at my centre it was my first job, I was 18 and working casually - it took 3 years for me to finally voice my opinion, which is way too long. I'm so passionate about making the right choices and being open to change now - it's important that you have an environment where everyone feels comfortable suggesting changes. How else are you supposed to improve?!

We have a few independent (love that term) eaters here too. I've never worked in LDC but as I was reading through some comments from educators working in LDC I realised how different it is catering to the children's needs in OSHC. I assume most LDCs have a trained chef who (while they may have to cater to a lot of different rooms and ages) knows who requires what and on what days. Here, we can have a phone call three minutes before pickup time (or after afternoon tea!) and suddenly have to find something for that child to eat before they arrive. The only "real" solution I can see is to have all menu choices that can be easily adapted to these children at all times. It's hard because a lot of the children who come here LOVE the variety of cultural foods we offer (like curries and sushi) but would also have to miss out. I'd love to try a completely paleo menu but some of our paleo children can't eat dairy and going by the guidelines we're supposed to offer dairy in the mornings and afternoons. Same goes for grains. I feel like there's no easy solution!