Healthy Environments in Child Care

Child care is crucial for creating positive environments where children can learn and grow. The healthy habits kids develop, like eating well and being active, often stay with them as they grow up. That's why it's important to start encouraging these habits from a young age.

These resources are based on evidence and support creating healthy environments in child care settings. They promote practices that encourage good health, such as:

All children are provided with healthy food and a positive eating environment while in care.
All children, while in care, spend less time sitting and more time learning basic movement skills through play.
All children have a wide range of opportunities to be active while in care. This includes adult-led activities, and time for active free play indoors and out.
Child care staff act as role models for healthy eating and physical activity.

Healthy Eating

Child care centres promote healthy eating by providing a wide range of nutritious and safe foods in a positive and supportive environment in accordance with the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014, Canada's food guide and Nutrition for Healthy Term Infants.

Child care resources (Ontario Dietitians in Public Health)

Child Care Menu Planning - Practical Guide helps child care providers ensure all meals, snacks, and beverages served in child care setting meet healthy eating recommendations for children one year of age and older. This resource is referenced in the Ministry of Education’s Child Care Centre and Home Child Care Licensing Manuals.
- To receive a FREE copy of the Guide, please complete this order form.
Additional menu planning resources:
- Modifying Recipes to Meet the Practical Guide - Practical tips to reduce sodium and sugar and increase whole grain content in recipes.
- Increasing the Use of Plant-based Proteins in Child Care Settings - Practical tips on how to choose, prepare and add more plant-based proteins to menus.
- Common Food Allergen Substitutions for Child Care Settings - Discover substitutions for common food allergens to accommodate children with allergies.
- Sample Menus - Sample four-week menu cycle that incorporates different foods to align with the Canada's food guide
- Reducing Food Costs and Environmental Impacts - A practical tool to support reducing food costs and environmental impacts.

Nurturing Children through Responsive Feeding - Describes how educators can nurture children in their care through responsive feeding practices and role modeling.
Paint Your Plate with Vegetables and Fruit: A Toolkit for Ontario Child Care Providers - Use these fun activities and resources to inspire young children to enjoy vegetables and fruit. This toolkit also includes sample supportive environment policies for child care settings and resources for parents.

Recipes

Weekly menus and recipes approved by Registered Dietitians at Ottawa Public Health.

Most recipes serve 20 to 50 preschool children. Adjust the recipe servings for the number of children who attend your child care setting.

Snacks

Bars

Cookies and Crackers

Loaves

Muffins and Scones

Vegetable and Fruit

Other

Mains

Recipes for meat and vegetarian dishes, sandwiches and soups.

Please note: a vegetarian substitution (*) is included in some main meal meat recipes, or in the Vegetarian Substitutions section. You can substitute pork with chicken or beef in most recipes.

Fish

Poultry

Meat

Vegetarian

Soups

Vegetarian substitutions

These small batch recipes for vegetarian substitutions serve 5 to 8 children. They look like meat-based main meals.

Legumes

Tofu and Eggs

Sides

Recipes for side dishes like pasta, rice, vegetables and more.

Kitchen basics

Basic recipes for everyday kitchen preparations

Dips and sauces

Recipes for dips, sauces and salad dressings

Dips and Sauces

Salad Dressings

Celebrations

Healthy and fun recipes for special events and celebrations.

Active Living

Ways to create supportive environment

Take an active role in teaching and promoting age appropriate physical activity and physical literacy skills while considering children’s abilities and temperaments.
Stay current with the latest research around ways to promote physical activity, physical literacy and reducing sedentary behaviours in children.
Have a positive attitude towards physical activity by encouraging all children to participate in physical activity and never withholding it as punishment.
Adapt indoor and outdoor space to create an environment to support active play and to develop physical literacy skills.
Provide age appropriate toys, portable play and sports equipment to promote physical literacy.
Make the space safe for children to be physically active and learn physical literacy skills.
Provide parents with physical activity and physical literacy information, resources and access to community services.

Steps to success

No screen time for children who are less than 4 years of age.
Infants and children should not be sitting for more than an hour when awake.
Play on the floor with infants several times a day to teach gross and fine motor skills.
Provide regular periods of physical activity throughout child care programming to support children reaching the recommended daily 180 minutes, including:
- At least 60 minutes per day of child-led active play inside and/or outdoors.
- At least 30 minutes per day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity encouraged and guided by adults.
- At least 30 minutes per day of physical literacy promoting activities.
Ensure children with disabilities and special needs receive the support or equipment needed to help them take part in physical activity.

Physical literacy

For more information on physical literacy and activity ideas

Sun Safety

Limiting children’s exposure to ultraviolet radiation is important, as it increases the risk of skin cancer when they are older.

You can create a sun safe environment for children in your care by registering for the SunSense program offered by the Canadian Cancer Society.

The SunSense program offers child cares, schools and summer camps access to free tools, resources, and parent information to protect children from harmful ultraviolet radiation. Information about best practices will help your organization to develop policies, provide shade where children play, and teach young children sun safety habits that will contribute to their health for years to come.

For key messages related to sun safety, review Sun Safety and Tanning and the following links:

Training for Child Care Providers

Coming in the fall 2024! Ottawa Public Health is collaborating with Ontario Dietitians in Public Health in the development of new E-learn modules. Stay tuned!

On-line training

Child care plays a key role in creating healthy environments where children learn and thrive.

The on-line training covers a wide variety of topics in nine small segment modules. To take the on-line training, select the "Child Care Healthy Eating and Active Living Guidelines Training" links below. Then you will be prompt to sign-in and log-on to take the training.

Part 1 - Child Care Healthy Eating and Active Living Guidelines Training (60 min)

Module 1: Eat, Play, Feel Good
Module 2: Families
Module 3: The Eating Environment
Module 4: A Healthy Menu
Module 5: What to Serve
Module 6: How to Serve Food Safely

Part 2 - Child Care Healthy Eating and Active Living Guidelines Training (30 min)

Module 7: Active Living Environment
Module 8: Active Play
Module 9: Physical Literacy

Supporting Families

Parenting in Ottawa

Parents/guardians can be a positive role model for child by leading by example. Their actions and words shape what child perceives as normal.

Parenting in Ottawa - Provides links to local community resources and events to connect parents/guardians with health and parenting experts. Information covers everything from expectant parents to families with teenagers.

Talking to children about food

10 Tips to Help Your Child Have a Positive Relationship with Food and Their Body (Ontario Dietitians in Public Health) - Information and tips on how to talk about food with your child in a way that promotes a positive relationship with food and body image.
Parents' Influence on Children’s Eating Habits (Unlock Foods) - Read on to learn how to positively influence your children’s eating habits by creating a positive eating environment and being a good role model.
Healthy Eating Booklist for Children [PDF 542 KB] - List of books for children that focus on food – growing, preparing and eating. Plus a list of conversation starters to talk about food with your children.

Physical activity: Be a role model

Active Kids, Healthy Kids - The Canadian Paediatric Society has ideas to help you make activity a priority for your family.

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