The child should get enough protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Nutritionists who develop menus for children's institutions take into account the needs of the child's body. A nutritionist monitors the balance, and if the kindergarten is small, this function is assigned to a health worker.
How many times to feed?
In most kindergartens with a 12-hour schedule, there are three meals a day, when children receive breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea. However, there may be options when there is lunch or dinner. In round-the-clock kindergartens, children eat four times, and in sanatoriums, the group - five or six, depending on the orientation.
If you want to create a kindergarten menu for your child, keep in mind that the dishes must change - soups and cereals should be different every day.
Breakfast
For breakfast in kindergarten, porridge is usually given; semolina, oatmeal, buckwheat, wheat, rice, etc. It is always prepared in milk. There may be exceptions - for example, in specialized kindergartens for children with allergic or gastric diseases, porridge can also be on the water. Children in the morning are given tea, cocoa or a coffee drink with milk, as well as a piece of bread with butter. Remember that natural coffee is not recommended for preschool children.
Lunch
There is a minimum set of foods that a child should receive every day. This set must include fruits or natural juice. But the diet in kindergartens can be different. Fruits and juices can be served for lunch, and if not provided, then for the main breakfast or for an afternoon snack.
Dinner
Kindergarten lunch usually consists of four courses. It starts with a salad - fresh cabbage or carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. Occasionally, you can give a salad of boiled beets, but you should not abuse it. Then soup or borscht is served. For the second, be sure to have a meat or fish dish with a side dish. It can be cutlets, goulash, frying, pieces of fried fish. On the third - compote from dried or fresh fruits. Bread is served for dinner, usually black. In older groups, children are offered a choice of black and white bread.
The fish must be boneless.
Afternoon snack
For an afternoon snack in the kindergartens, cottage cheese is served in different versions - with sour cream, with raisins, in the form of cheese cakes or casseroles. In kindergartens of a general developmental type with a 12-hour schedule, several times a week, an enhanced afternoon snack is given, which may include, for example, meat casserole. On some days, children can be offered fruit puree, sweet pilaf, fruit soup, or just a roll of coffee, milk or tea.
Dinner
If dinner is provided in the kindergarten, children receive porridge, cottage cheese casserole (if it was not for an afternoon snack), mashed potatoes with additives, as well as tea, milk or juice. In round-the-clock sanatorium kindergartens, children are given yogurt, milk or kefir about an hour before bedtime.
Sample menu
Breakfast:
- semolina porridge;
- coffee drink;
- a bun with butter.
Lunch;
- cookies;
- the juice.
Dinner;
- fresh cabbage salad;
- beetroot;
- fish in Polish;
- dried fruits compote;
- bread.
Afternoon snack:
- cottage cheese casserole;
- tea.
