Food, rest and care
Allergies and special diets
What we can manage, what we cannot, and the difference between a preference, an intolerance and an anaphylaxis plan — which are three genuinely different problems.
This is a page where an over-reassuring answer is dangerous rather than merely annoying. A nursery that tells you on the telephone it can handle any allergy, before seeing the plan, has told you something it has not checked.
We manage allergies and special diets at no additional charge, in a shared kitchen, with a cook on site. Those three facts together define both what is possible here and what is not.
Three different things that get called the same thing
A preference — a family who does not eat pork, a child who will not touch anything green. Straightforward, accommodated without comment, and it needs no paperwork beyond telling us.
An intolerance — lactose, gluten where it is not coeliac disease. Real, uncomfortable, and manageable with a substitution and reasonable care. Cross-contact matters less, though it still matters.
An allergy with a risk of anaphylaxis. Categorically different. It needs a written plan from a physician, prescribed medication in date and on the premises, staff trained to use it, and a kitchen protocol that assumes a mistake will eventually be attempted. Treating this as a version of the first two is how children get hurt.
What we need before a place is confirmed
The written plan itself, in front of us, at the enrolment visit. Not described on the telephone. The plan names the allergen, the symptoms, the medication, the dose and the escalation, and it is the document everything else is built on.
Medication in date, in the original labelled packaging, with a replacement plan for when it expires. An expired auto-injector in a locked cupboard is a plan that has already failed.
And an honest conversation about our kitchen. We cook for every child in one kitchen. For some allergens that is entirely workable with separated preparation and equipment; for others it genuinely is not, and we will say which yours is rather than accepting and hoping.
Why we will sometimes say no
Because accepting a place we cannot safely honour is worse for a child than declining it. A family who is turned down in August finds somewhere else; a family who is accepted and then discovers in November that the kitchen cannot actually do it has lost three months and a great deal of trust.
The situations where we are most likely to say no involve airborne-reactive allergens, multiple severe allergens in combination, or a plan that requires a level of medical monitoring which belongs with a nurse rather than with educators.
We would rather be the nursery that said no than the nursery on the news.
How it works day to day once agreed
The plan is on the kitchen wall and in the room, with a photograph of the child on it. Every member of staff who works in that room knows it, including anybody covering.
Separated preparation, separate equipment and separate serving where required. Meals for that child are plated first, before the allergen is anywhere in the kitchen.
No food comes in from home for sharing — no birthday cakes, no bags of sweets, no bringing something in for the room. This is unpopular and it is not negotiable, because a birthday cake is the single most common route by which an allergen arrives in a nursery unannounced.
When we will ring you and ask you to come. We will ask you to collect your child at a temperature of 100.4 degrees or above, for vomiting or diarrhoea, for an undiagnosed rash, or when they are simply too unwell to take part in the day. There is no sick room here and we do not have staff to sit with one child away from a group. We publish the thresholds so the decision is not a negotiation at two in the afternoon — and because a nursery willing to bend them for you is a nursery that bent them for the family whose child infected yours.
Included as standard
What is included
Managed at no additional charge
There is no allergy supplement and there never will be.
The written plan read before a place is confirmed
In front of us, at the enrolment visit, rather than described on the telephone.
Medication in date, on the premises
Original labelled packaging, with a replacement plan for expiry.
Staff in the room trained on the plan
Including anybody covering. The plan is on the kitchen wall and in the room.
Separated preparation and equipment
Meals plated first, before the allergen is anywhere in the kitchen.
An honest answer about our shared kitchen
For some allergens it works. For others it genuinely does not, and we will say which.
No food brought in from home to share
No birthday cakes and no sweets. Unpopular, and the commonest route an allergen arrives unannounced.
A no where a no is the right answer
Accepting a place we cannot safely honour is worse for a child than declining it.
When to make an appointment
Signs this is worth an assessment
- Your child has a written anaphylaxis plan and you want somebody to actually read it.
- You have been told over the telephone that a nursery can manage anything.
- You want to know before enrolment whether a shared kitchen is workable for your child's allergen.
- You would rather hear a straight no in August than a discovery in November.
- You are tired of birthday cakes appearing unannounced in your child's room.
- You need a substitution rather than a protocol and want it handled without fuss.
Allergies & diets — what it costs
- Managed at no charge, but not accepted unconditionally. A nursery that promises to handle every allergy in a shared kitchen without seeing the plan first is promising something it has not checked.Included
Every rate on this site is published in full on the tuition page, including the ones that make us look expensive. Meals, snacks, nappy changing, settling-in sessions and the whole curriculum are inside the weekly fee — there is no premium tier and no outside provider invoicing you separately for a music class. The two charges that are not in the weekly fee are registration, at $75 a year per family rather than per child, and late collection after 6:15pm at $1 a minute, which goes to the two members of staff who stayed. If your child is three or four, read the 3-K page before you read this one.
Questions we are actually asked
Allergies & diets — frequently asked
Can you manage my child's allergy?
Sometimes, and we will not answer that on the telephone. Bring the written plan to the enrolment visit and we will go through it against what our kitchen can actually do. For many allergens separated preparation works well; for some — airborne-reactive allergens especially — it genuinely does not, and we will tell you which yours is.
Is there a charge for a special diet?
No, and there will not be. Allergies, intolerances and dietary preferences are managed within the ordinary fee.
Why would you turn a child down?
Because accepting a place we cannot safely honour is worse for that child than declining it. A family told no in August finds somewhere else. A family accepted and then failed in November has lost three months and a great deal of trust.
Can I send in a birthday cake?
No, and this is the least popular rule here. Food brought in from home to share is the single most common route by which an allergen arrives in a nursery unannounced. We mark birthdays without it.
What happens if there is a reaction?
The plan is followed exactly as written — it names the medication, the dose and the escalation, and staff in that room are trained on it before your child starts. We ring you immediately and we call emergency services where the plan says to, in that order rather than the other way round.
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Meals
Breakfast, a cooked lunch and two snacks, made in the kitchen here. The week's menu is posted, and it is the menu we actually cook.
Included
Infant care
Four infants to one educator, in a group of no more than eight, with the same two faces every day. The ratio is the whole product.
$475 / week
Observation & referral
We watch, we write it down, and where something concerns us we tell you early and point you at Early Intervention. We do not diagnose.
Included
Inclusion & IEPs
What we can genuinely support, what needs a therapist we do not employ, and how we say the second one out loud.
IncludedTuesday and Thursday mornings, while the children are here
Come and see the room
A tour here happens during a session, in the room your child would actually be in, at the time of day they would be in it. You meet the person who leads that room rather than only the director, and you see the noise and the mess that are genuinely there. It takes an hour. If your child is three or four we will ask whether you have applied for free 3-K or Pre-K for All before we quote you a rate, because a good many families should not be paying us at all.