Little Penguin Daycare, Gaithersburg

We serve breakfast, lunch and 2 snacks each day as part of my program. The menu will include bread, dairy products, fruit, meat/poultry, vegetables, pasta/grains, etc. Sweets may be included occasionally. If your child does not finish eating at home before he/she comes in the morning, remember we serve breakfast no later than 9:00 a.m. If your child has a food allergy, please document it upon enrollment and let me know. We will make an appropriate substitution. If a child has so many allergies that he cannot eat from the menu, parents may be required to provide his lunch and/or snacks. We never force a child to finish what is on his plate, but we do encourage each child to try at least one or two bites of everything. Sometimes they are surprised by what they like! Occasionally I have problems with children who only wanted to eat chips or cookies, etc. When this occurs on a regular basis we may give that child just the main dish and vegetable on his plate to start, adding the other elements when a few bites of the main dish and vegetable have been tried. I may ask parents to bring their own food for their child if: - The child's pediatrician has a different time schedule for introducing different types of food than the Food Program outlines. - The parents prefer to provide all the child's food in order to know exactly what brand of everything went into the baby's system and exactly how it was fixed. - The child is having a difficult time with allergies, etc., and has to keep changing his formula and/or foods. - If you wish to provide snacks at your child's birthday or another time, that's great! If you let me know ahead of time, it helps. If you ever need some ideas of nutritional snacks (to bring here or to have at home), let me know.